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Wntten  by  Elbert  Hubbard 
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Copyright,  1911 
By  Elbert  Hubbard 


h 

v, 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
SANTA  BARBARA 


CONTENTS 

GEORGE  WASHINGTON 
BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 
ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 
SAMUEL  ADAMS 
JOHN  HANCOCK 
JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS 


9 

37 

59 

91 

in 

139 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON 


HE  left  as  fair  a  reputation  as  ever  belonged  to  a  human 
character.  .  .  .  Midst  all  the  sorrowings  that  are 
mingled  on  this  melancholy  occasion  I  venture  to  assert 
that  none  could  have  felt  his  death  with  more  regret  than 
I,  because  no  one  had  higher  opinions  of  his  worth. 
.  .  .  There  is  this  consolation,  though,  to  be  drawn, 
that  while  living  no  man  could  be  more  esteemed,  and 
since  dead  none  is  more  lamented. 

— Washington,  on  the  death  of  Tilghman. 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON 


'BAN  STANLEY  has  said  that  all  the  gods 
of  ancient  mythology  were  once  men,  and 
he  traces  for  us  the  evolution  of  a  man 
into  a  hero,  the  hero  into  a  demigod,  and 
the  demigod  into  a  divinity.  By  a  slow 
process,  the  natural  man  is  divested  of 
all  our  common  faults  and  frailties;  he 
is  clothed  with  superhuman  attributes  and 
declared  a  being  separate  and  apart,  and 
is  lost  to  us  in  the  clouds. 
When  Greenough  carved  that  statue  of 
Washington  that  sits  facing  the  Capitol, 
he  unwittingly  showed  how  a  man  may 
be  transformed  into  a  Jove. 
But  the  world  has  reached  a  point  when 
to  be  human  is  no  longer  a  cause  for 
apology;  we  recognize  that  the  human, 
in  degree,  comprehends  the  divine. 
Jove  inspires  fear,  but  to  Washington  we 
pay  the  tribute  of  affection  <£>  Beings 
hopelessly  separated  from  us  are  not  ours : 
a  god  we  can  not  love,  a  man  we  may. 
We  know  Washington  as  well  as  it  is 
possible  to  know  any  man.  We  know 
him  better,  far  better,  than  the  people 
who  lived  in  the  very  household  with 
him.  We  have  his  diary  showing  "how 
and  where  I  spent  my  time";  we  have 
his  journal,  his  account-books  (and  no 


10 


man  was  ever  a  more  painstaking  accountant) ;  we  have 
hundreds  of  his  letters,  and  his  own  copies  and  first  drafts 
of  hundreds  of  others,  the  originals  of  which  have  been 
lost  or  destroyed. 

From  these,  with  contemporary  history,  we  are  able  to 
make  up  a  close  estimate  of  the  man;  and  we  find  him 
human — splendidly  human.  By  his  books  of  accounts  we 
find  that  he  was  often  imposed  upon,  that  he  loaned  thou 
sands  of  dollars  to  people  who  had  no  expectation  of  paying ; 
and  hi  his  last  will,  written  with  his  own  hand,  we  find  him 
canceling  these  debts,  and  making  bequests  to  scores  of 
relatives;  giving  freedom  to  his  slaves,  and  acknowledging 
his  obligation  to  servants  and  various  other  obscure  persons. 
He  was  a  man  in  very  sooth.  He  was  a  man  in  that  he  had 
in  him  the  appetites,  the  ambitions,  the  desires  of  a  man. 
Stewart,  the  artist,  has  said,  "All  of  his  features  were 
indications  of  the  strongest  and  most  ungovernable  pas 
sions,  and  had  he  been  born  in  the  forest,  he  would  have 
been  the  fiercest  man  among  savage  tribes." 
But  over  the  sleeping  volcano  of  his  temper  he  kept  watch 
and  ward,  until  his  habit  became  one  of  gentleness,  generosity 
and  shining,  simple  truth;  and,  behind  all,  we  behold  his 
unswerving  purpose  and  steadfast  strength. 
And  so  the  object  of  this  sketch  will  be,  not  to  show  the 
superhuman  Washington,  the  Washington  set  apart,  but  to 
give  a  glimpse  of  the  man  Washington  who  aspired,  feared, 
hoped,  loved  and  bravely  died. 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON 11 

rHE  first  biographer  of  George  Washington  was  the 
Reverend  Mason  L.  Weems.  If  you  have  a  copy  of 
Weems'  "Life  of  Washington,"  you  had  better  wrap 
it  in  chamois  and  place  it  away  for  your  heirs,  for  some 
time  it  will  command  a  price.  Fifty  editions  of  Weems' 
book  were  printed,  and  in  its  day  no  other  volume  approached 
it  in  point  of  popularity.  In  American  literature,  Weems 
stood  first.  To  Weems  are  we  indebted  for  the  hatchet  tale, 
the  story  of  the  colt  that  was  broken  and  killed  in  the  process, 
and  all  those  other  fine  romances  of  Washington's  youth. 
Weems'  literary  style  reveals  the  very  acme  of  that  vicious 
quality  of  untruth  to  be  found  in  the  old-time  Sunday-school 
books.  Weems  mustered  all  the  "Little  Willie"  stories  he 
could  find,  and  attached  to  them  Washington's  name, 
claiming  to  write  for  "the  Betterment  of  the  Young,"  as 
if  in  dealing  with  the  young  we  should  carefully  conceal 
the  truth.  Possibly  Washington  could  not  tell  a  lie,  but 
Weems  was  not  thus  handicapped. 
Under  a  mass  of  silly  moralizing,  he  nearly  buried  the  real 
Washington,  giving  us  instead  a  priggish,  punk  youth, 
and  a  Madame  Tussaud,  full-dress  general,  with  a  wax 
works  manner  and  a  wooden  dignity. 
Happily,  we  have  now  come  to  a  time  when  such  authors 
as  Mason  L.  Weems  and  John  S.  C.  Abbott  are  no  longer 
accepted  as  final  authorities.  We  do  not  discard  them, 
but,  like  Samuel  Pepys,  they  are  retained  that  they  may 
contribute  to  the  gaiety  of  nations. 

Various  violent  efforts  have  been  made  in  days  agone  to 
show  that  Washington  was  of  "a  noble  line" — as  if  the 


12 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON 


natural  nobility  of  the  man  needed  a  reason — forgetful  that 
we  are  all  sons  of  God,  and  it  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we 
shall  be.  But  Burke's  "Peerage"  lends  no  light,  and  the 
careful,  unprejudiced,  patient  search  of  recent  years  finds 
only  the  blue  blood  of  the  common  people. 
Washington  himself  said  that  in  his  opinion  the  history 
of  his  ancestors  "was  of  small  moment  and  a  subject  to 
which,  I  confess,  I  have  paid  little  attention." 
He  had  a  bookplate  and  he  had  also  a  coat  of  arms  on  his 
carriage-door.  The  Reverend  Mr.  Weems  has  described 
Washington's  bookplate  thus:  "Argent,  two  bars  gules  in 
chief,  three  mullets  of  the  second.  Crest,  a  raven  with 
wings,  indorsed  proper,  issuing  out  of  a  ducal  coronet,  or." 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON 13 

>ARY  BALL  was  the  second  wife  of  Augustine  Wash 
ington.  In  his  will  the  good  man  describes  this 
marriage,  evidently  with  a  wink,  as  "my  second 
Venture."  And  it  is  sad  to  remember  that  he  did  not  live 
to  know  that  his  "Venture"  made  America  his  debtor.  The 
success  of  the  union  seems  pretty  good  argument  in  favor 
of  widowers  marrying.  There  were  four  children  in  the 
family,  the  oldest  nearly  full  grown,  when  Mary  Ball  came 
to  take  charge  of  the  household.  She  was  twenty-seven, 
her  husband  ten  years  older.  They  were  married  March 
Sixth,  Seventeen  Hundred  Thirty-one,  and  on  February 
Twenty-second  of  the  following  year  was  born  a  man  child 
and  they  named  him  George. 

The  Washingtons  were  plain,  hard-working  people — land- 
poor.  They  lived  in  a  small  house  that  had  three  rooms 
downstairs  and  an  attic,  where  the  children  slept,  and 
bumped  their  heads  against  the  rafters  if  they  sat  up  quickly 
in  bed  jt  jt 

Washington  got  his  sterling  qualities  from  the  Ball  family, 
and  not  from  the  tribe  of  Washington.  George  was  endowed 
by  his  mother  with  her  own  splendid  health  and  with  all 
the  sturdy  Spartan  virtues  of  her  mind.  In  features  and  in 
mental  characteristics,  he  resembled  her  very  closely.  There 
were  six  children  born  to  her  in  all,  but  the  five  have  been 
nearly  lost  sight  of  in  the  splendid  success  of  the  firstborn. 
<JI  have  used  the  word  "Spartan"  advisedly.  Upon  her 
children,  the  mother  of  Washington  lavished  no  soft  senti 
mentality.  A  woman  who  cooked,  weaved,  spun,  washed, 
made  the  clothes,  and  looked  after  a  big  family  in  pioneer 


,4 GEORGE    WASHINGTON 

times  had  her  work  cut  out  for  her.  The  children  of  Mary 
Washington  obeyed  her,  and  when  told  to  do  a  thing  never 
stopped  to  ask  why — and  the  same  fact  may  be  said  of  the 
father  ,jt  jft 

The  girls  wore  linsey-woolsey  dresses,  and  the  boys  tow 
suits  that  consisted  of  two  pieces,  which  in  Winter  were 
further  added  to  by  hat  and  boots.  If  the  weather  was  very 
cold,  the  suits  were  simply  duplicated — a  boy  wearing  two 
or  three  pairs  of  trousers  instead  of  one. 
The  mother  was  the  first  one  up  in  the  morning,  the  last 
one  to  go  to  rest  at  night.  If  a  youngster  kicked  off  the 
covers  in  his  sleep  and  had  a  coughing  spell,  she  arose 
and  looked  after  him.  Were  any  sick,  she  not  only  ministered 
to  them,  but  often  watched  away  the  long  dragging  hours 
of  the  night. 

And  I  have  noticed  that  these  sturdy  mothers  in  Israel  who 
so  willingly  give  their  lives  that  others  may  live,  often  find 
vent  for  overwrought  feelings  by  scolding;  and  I,  for  one, 
cheerfully  grant  them  the  privilege.  Washington's  mother 
scolded  and  grumbled  to  the  day  of  her  death.  She  also 
sought  solace  by  smoking  a  pipe.  And  this  reminds  me  that 
a  noted  specialist  in  neurotics  has  recently  said  that  if 
women  would  use  the  weed  moderately,  tired  nerves  would 
find  repose  and  nervous  prostration  would  be  a  luxury 
unknown.  Not  being  much  of  a  smoker  myself,  and  knowing 
nothing  about  the  subject,  I  give  the  item  for  what  it  is 
worth  jft  & 

All  the  sterling,  classic  virtues  of  industry,  frugality  and 
truth-telling  were  inculcated  by  this  excellent  mother,  and 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON 15 

her  strong  commonsense  made  its  indelible  impress  upon 
the  mind  of  her  son. 

Mary  Washington  always  regarded  George's  judgment  with 
a  little  suspicion ;  she  never  came  to  think  of  him  as  a  full- 
grown  man ;  to  her  he  was  only  a  big  boy.  Hence,  she  would 
chide  him  and  criticize  his  actions  in  a  way  that  often  made 
him  very  uncomfortable.  During  the  Revolutionary  War 
she  followed  his  record  closely ;  when  he  succeeded  she  only 
smiled,  said  something  that  sounded  like  "I  told  you  so," 
and  calmly  filled  her  pipe;  when  he  was  repulsed  she  was 
never  cast  down.  She  foresaw  that  he  would  be  made  Presi 
dent,  and  thought  "he  would  do  as  well  as  anybody." 
Once,  she  complained  to  him  of  her  house  in  Fredericksburg ; 
he  wrote  in  answer,  gently  but  plainly,  that  her  habits  of 
life  were  not  such  as  would  be  acceptable  at  Mount  Vernon. 
And  to  this  she  replied  that  she  had  never  expected  or 
intended  to  go  to  Mount  Vernon,  and  moreover  would  not, 
no  matter  how  much  urged — a  declination  without  an 
invitation  that  must  have  caused  the  son  a  grim  smile. 
In  her  nature  was  a  goodly  trace  of  savage  stoicism  that 
took  a  satisfaction  in  concealing  the  joy  she  felt  in  her 
son's  achievement;  for  that  her  life  was  all  bound  up  in 
his  we  have  good  evidence.  Washington  looked  after  her 
wants  and  supplied  her  with  everything  she  needed,  and, 
as  these  things  often  came  through  third  parties,  it  is  pretty 
certain  she  did  not  know  the  source ;  at  any  rate  she  accepted 
everything  quite  as  her  due,  and  shows  a  half-comic  ingrati 
tude  that  is  very  fine. 
When  Washington  started  for  New  York  to  be  inaugurated 


!6 GEORGE    WASHINGTON 

President,  he  stopped  to  see  her.  She  donned  a  new  white 
cap  and  a  clean  apron  in  honor  of  the  visit,  remarking  to 
a  neighbor  woman  who  dropped  in  that  she  supposed  "these 
great  folks  expected  something  a  little  extra."  It  was  the 
last  meeting  of  mother  and  son.  She  was  eighty-three  at 
that  time  and  "her  boy"  fifty-five.  She  died  not  long  after. 
€J  Samuel  Washington,  the  brother  two  years  younger  than 
George,  has  been  described  as  "small,  sandy-whiskered, 
shrewd  and  glib."  Samuel  was  married  five  times.  Some  of 
the  wives  he  deserted  and  others  deserted  him,  and  two  of 
them  died,  thus  leaving  him  twice  a  sad,  lorn  widower, 
from  which  condition  he  quickly  extricated  himself.  He 
was  always  in  financial  straits  and  often  appealed  to  his 
brother  George  for  loans.  In  Seventeen  Hundred  Eighty-one, 
we  find  George  Washington  writing  to  his  brother  John, 
"In  God's  name!  how  has  Samuel  managed  to  get  himself 
so  enormously  in  debt?  "  The  remark  sounds  a  little  like 
that  of  Samuel  Johnson,  who  on  hearing  that  Goldsmith 
was  owing  four  hundred  pounds  exclaimed,  "Was  ever 
poet  so  trusted  before?  " 

Washington's  ledger  shows  that  he  advanced  his  brother 
Samuel  two  thousand  dollars,  "to  be  paid  back  without 
interest."  But  Samuel's  ship  never  came  in,  and  in  Wash 
ington's  will  we  find  the  debt  graciously  and  gracefully 
discharged  &  jt 

Thornton  Washington,  a  son  of  Samuel,  was  given  a  place 
in  the  English  army  at  George  Washington's  request ;  and 
two  other  sons  of  Samuel  were  sent  to  school  at  his  expense. 
One  of  the  boys  once  ran  away  and  was  followed  by  his 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON 17 

uncle  George,  who  carried  a  goodly  birch  with  intent  to 
"give  him  what  he  deserved";  but  after  catching  the  lad 
the  uncle's  heart  melted,  and  he  took  the  runaway  back 
into  favor.  An  entry  in  Washington's  journal  shows  that 
the  children  of  his  brother  Samuel  cost  him  fully  five  thou 
sand  dollars. 

Harriot,  one  of  the  daughters  of  Samuel,  lived  in  the  house 
hold  at  Mount  Vernon  and  evidently  was  a  great  cross, 
for  we  find  Washington  pleading  as  an  excuse  for  her  frivolity 
that  "she  was  not  brung  up  right,  she  has  no  disposition, 
and  takes  no  care  of  her  clothes,  which  are  dabbed  about 
in  every  corner,  and  the  best  are  always  in  use.  She  costs 
me  enough !  " 

And  this  was  about  as  near  a  complaint  as  the  Father  of 
his  Country,  and  the  father  of  all  his  poor  relations,  ever 
made.  In  his  ledger  we  find  this  item:  "By  Miss  Harriot 
Washington,  gave  her  to  buy  wedding-clothes,  $100.00." 
It  supplied  the  great  man  joy  to  write  that  line,  for  it  was 
the  last  of  Harriot.  He  furnished  a  fine  wedding  for  her, 
and  all  the  servants  had  a  holiday,  and  Harriot  and  her 
unknown  lover  were  happy  ever  afterwards — so  far  as  we 
know  jfc  jt 

From  Seventeen  Hundred  Fifty  to  Seventeen  Hundred 
Fifty-nine,  Washington  was  a  soldier  on  the  frontier,  leaving 
Mount  Vernon  and  all  his  business  in  charge  of  his  brother 
John  &  Between  these  two  there  was  a  genuine  bond  of 
affection.  To  George  this  brother  was  always,  "Dear  Jack," 
and  when  John  married,  George  sends  "respectful  greetings 
to  your  Lady,"  and  afterwards  "love  to  the  little  ones  from 


,8 GEORGE    WASHINGTON 

their  Uncle."  And  in  one  of  the  dark  hours  of  the  Revolution, 
George  writes  from  New  Jersey  to  this  brother:  "God  grant 
you  health  and  happiness.  Nothing  in  this  world  would  add 
so  to  mine  as  to  be  near  you."  John  died  in  Seventeen  Hun 
dred  Eighty-seven,  and  the  President  of  the  United  States 
writes  in  simple,  undisguised  grief  of  "the  death  of  my 
beloved  brother." 

John's  eldest  son,  Bushrod,  was  Washington's  favorite 
nephew.  He  took  a  lively  interest  in  the  boy's  career,  and 
taking  him  to  Philadelphia  placed  him  in  the  law-office 
of  Judge  James  Wilson.  He  supplied  Bushrod  with  funds, 
and  wrote  him  many  affectionate  letters  of  advice,  and 
several  times  made  him  a  companion  on  journeys.  The 
boy  proved  worthy  of  it  all,  and  developed  into  a  strong 
and  manly  man — quite  the  best  of  all  Washington's  kinsfolk. 
In  later  years,  we  find  Washington  asking  his  advice  in 
legal  matters  and  excusing  himself  for  being  such  a  "trouble 
some,  non-paying  client."  In  his  will  the  "Honorable  Bush- 
rod  Washington  "  is  named  as  one  of  the  executors,  and  to 
him  Washington  left  his  library  and  all  his  private  papers, 
besides  a  share  in  the  estate.  Such  confidence  was  a  fitting 
good-by  from  the  great  and  loving  heart  of  a  father  to  a 
son  full  worthy  of  the  highest  trust. 
Of  Washington's  relations  with  his  brother  Charles,  we  know 
but  little.  Charles  was  a  plain,  simple  man  who  worked  hard 
and  raised  a  big  family.  In  his  will  Washington  remembers 
them  all,  and  one  of  the  sons  of  Charles  we  know  was 
appointed  to  a  position  upon  Lafayette's  staff  on  Wash 
ington's  request. 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON 19 

The  only  one  of  Washington's  family  that  resembled  him 
closely  was  his  sister  Betty.  The  contour  of  her  face  was 
almost  identical  with  his,  and  she  was  so  proud  of  it  that 
she  often  wore  her  hair  in  a  queue  and  donned  his  hat  and 
sword  for  the  amusement  of  visitors.  Betty  married  Fielding 
Lewis,  and  two  of  her  sons  acted  as  private  secretaries  to 
Washington  while  he  was  President.  One  of  these  sons — 
Lawrence  Lewis — married  Nellie  Custis,  the  adopted  daugh 
ter  of  Washington  and  granddaughter  of  Mrs.  Washington, 
and  the  couple,  by  Washington's  will,  became  part-owners 
of  Mount  Vernon.  The  man  who  can  figure  out  the  exact 
relationship  of  Nellie  Custis'  children  to  Washington  deserves 
a  medal  «jt  & 

We  do  not  know  much  of  Washington's  father :  if  he  exerted 
any  special  influence  on  his  children  we  do  not  know  it.  He 
died  when  George  was  eleven  years  old,  and  the  boy  then 
went  to  live  at  the  "Hunting  Creek  Place"  with  his  half- 
brother  Lawrence,  that  he  might  attend  school.  Lawrence 
had  served  in  the  English  navy  under  Admiral  Vernon,  and, 
in  honor  of  his  chief,  changed  the  name  of  his  home  and 
called  it  Mount  Vernon.  Mount  Vernon  then  consisted  of 
twenty-five  hundred  acres,  mostly  a  tangle  of  forest,  with 
a  small  house  and  log  stables.  The  tract  had  descended  to 
Lawrence  from  his  father,  with  provision  that  it  should  fall 
to  George  if  Lawrence  died  without  issue.  Lawrence  married, 
and  when  he  died,  aged  thirty-two,  he  left  a  daughter, 
Mildred,  who  died  two  years  later.  Mount  Vernon  then 
passed  to  George  Washington,  aged  twenty-one,  but  not 
without  a  protest  from  the  widow  of  Lawrence,  who  evidently 


2O 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON 


was  paid  not  to  take  the  matter  into  the  courts.  Washington 
owned  Mount  Vernon  for  forty-six  years,  just  one-half  of 
which  time  was  given  to  the  service  of  his  country.  It  was 
the  only  place  he  ever  called  "home,"  and  there  he  sleeps. 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON  21 


m 


'HEN  Washington  was  fourteen,  his  schooldays 
were  over.  Of  his  youth  we  know  but  little.  He 
was  not  precocious,  although  physically  he  devel 
oped  early;  but  there  was  no  reason  why  the  neighbors 
should  keep  tab  on  him  and  record  anecdotes.  They  had 
boys  of  their  own  just  as  promising.  He  was  tall  and  slender, 
long-armed,  with  large,  bony  hands  and  feet,  very  strong, 
a  daring  horseman,  a  good  wrestler,  and,  living  on  the  banks 
of  a  river,  he  became,  as  all  healthy  boys  must,  a  good 
swimmer  <&  jt 

His  mission  among  the  Indians  in  his  twenty-first  year 
was  largely  successful  through  the  personal  admiration  he 
excited  among  the  savages.  In  poise,  he  was  equal  to  their 
best,  and  ever  being  a  bit  proud,  even  if  not  vain,  he  dressed 
for  the  occasion  in  full  Indian  regalia,  minus  only  the  war 
paint  jt  The  Indians  at  once  recognized  his  nobility,  and 
named  him  "Conotancarius  " — Plunderer  of  Villages — and 
suggested  that  he  take  to  wife  an  Indian  maiden,  and  remain 
with  them  as  chief. 

When  he  returned  home,  he  wrote  to  the  Indian  agent, 
announcing  his  safe  arrival  and  sending  greetings  to  the 
Indians.  "Tell  them,"  he  says,  "how  happy  it  would  make 
Conotancarius  to  see  them,  and  take  them  by  the  hand." 
C  His  wish  was  gratified,  for  the  Indians  took  him  at  his 
word,  and  fifty  of  them  came  to  him,  saying,  "Since  you 
could  not  come  and  live  with  us,  we  have  come  to  live  with 
you."  They  camped  on  the  green  in  front  of  the  residence, 
and  proceeded  to  inspect  every  room  in  the  house,  tested 
all  the  whisky  they  could  find,  appropriated  eatables,  and 


22 GEORGE    WASHINGTON 

were  only  induced  to  depart  after  all  the  bedclothes  had 
been  dyed  red,  and  a  blanket  or  a  quilt  presented  to  each. 
<J  Throughout  his  life  Washington  had  a  very  tender  spot 
in  his  heart  for  women.  At  sixteen,  he  writes  with  all  a 
youth's  solemnity  of  "a  hurt  of  the  heart  uncurable."  And 
from  that  time  forward  there  is  ever  some  "Faire  Mayde" 
to  be  seen  in  the  shadow.  In  fact,  Washington  got  along 
with  women  much  better  than  with  men ;  with  men  he  was 
often  diffident  and  awkward,  illy  concealing  his  uneasiness 
behind  a  forced  dignity ;  but  he  knew  that  women  admired 
him,  and  with  them  he  was  at  ease.  When  he  made  that 
first  Western  trip,  carrying  a  message  to  the  French,  he 
turns  aside  to  call  on  the  Indian  princess,  Aliguippa.  In 
his  journal,  he  says,  "presented  her  a  Blanket  and  a  Bottle 
of  Rum,  which  latter  was  thought  the  much  best  Present 
of  the  2." 

In  his  expense-account  we  find  items  like  these:  "Treat 
ing  the  ladys  2  shillings."  "Present  for  Polly  5  shillings." 
"My  share  for  Music  at  the  Dance  3  shillings."  "Lost  at 
Loo  5  shillings."  In  fact,  like  most  Episcopalians,  Washing 
ton  danced  and  played  cards.  His  favorite  game  seems  to 
have  been  "Loo  " ;  and  he  generally  played  for  small  stakes, 
and  when  playing  with  "the  Ladys"  usually  lost,  whether 
purposely  or  because  otherwise  absorbed,  we  know  not  Jt 
<J  In  Seventeen  Hundred  Fifty-six,  he  made  a  horseback 
journey  on  military  business  to  Boston,  stopping  a  week 
going  and  on  the  way  back  at  New  York.  He  spent  the  time 
at  the  house  of  a  former  Virginian,  Beverly  Robinson,  who 
had  married  Susannah  Philipse,  daughter  of  Frederick 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON 23 

Philipse,  one  of  the  rich  men  of  Manhattan.  In  the  household 
was  a  young  woman,  Mary  Philipse,  sister  of  the  hostess. 
She  was  older  than  Washington,  educated,  and  had  seen 
much  more  of  polite  life  than  he.  The  tall,  young  Virginian, 
fresh  from  the  frontier,  where  he  had  had  horses  shot  under 
him,  excited  the  interest  of  Mary  Philipse,  and  Washington, 
innocent  but  ardent,  mistook  this  natural  curiosity  for  a 
softer  sentiment  and  proposed  on  the  spot.  As  soon  as  the 
lady  got  her  breath  he  was  let  down  very  gently. 
Two  years  afterwards  Mary  Philipse  married  Colonel  Roger 
Morris,  in  the  king's  service,  and  cards  were  duly  sent  to 
Mount  Vernon.  But  the  whirligig  of  time  equalizes  all  things, 
and,  in  Seventeen  Hundred  Seventy-six,  General  Washing 
ton,  Commander  of  the  Continental  Army,  occupied  the 
mansion  of  Colonel  Morris,  the  Colonel  and  his  lady  being 
fugitive  Tories  «jfc  In  his  diary,  Washington  records  this 
significant  item:  "Dined  at  the  house  lately  Colonel  Roger 
Morris  confiscated  and  the  occupation  of  a  common 
Farmer."  jt  Jk 

Washington  always  attributed  his  defeat  at  the  hands  of 
Mary  Philipse  to  being  too  precipitate  and  "not  waiting  until 
ye  ladye  was  in  ye  mood."  But  two  years  later  we  find  him 
being  even  more  hasty  and  this  time  with  success,  which 
proves  that  all  signs  fail  in  dry  weather,  and  some  things 
are  possible  as  well  as  others.  He  was  on  his  way  to  Williams- 
burg  to  consult  physicians  and  stopped  at  the  residence  of 
Mrs.  Daniel  Parke  Custis  to  make  a  short  call — was  pressed 
to  remain  to  tea,  did  so,  proposed  marriage,  and  was  gra 
ciously  accepted.  We  have  a  beautiful  steel  engraving  that 


24  GEORGE    WASHINGTON 

immortalizes  this  visit,  showing  Washington's  horse  impa 
tiently  waiting  at  the  door. 

Mrs.  Custis  was  a  widow  with  two  children.  She  was  twenty- 
six,  and  the  same  age  as  Washington  within  three  months. 
Her  husband  had  died  seven  months  before.  In  Washington's 
cash  account  for  May,  Seventeen  Hundred  Fifty-eight,  is 
an  item,  "one  Engagement  Ring  £2.16.0." 
The  happy  couple  were  married  eight  months  later,  and 
we  find  Mrs.  Washington  explaining  to  a  friend  that  her 
reason  for  the  somewhat  hasty  union  was  that  her  estate 
was  getting  in  a  bad  way  and  a  man  was  needed  to  look 
after  it.  Our  actions  are  usually  right,  but  the  reasons  we 
give  seldom  are;  but  in  this  case  no  doubt  "a  man  was 
needed,"  for  the  widow  had  much  property,  and  we  can  not 
but  congratulate  Martha  Custis  on  her  choice  of  "a  man." 
She  owned  fifteen  thousand  acres  of  land,  many  lots  in  the 
city  of  Williamsburg,  two  hundred  negroes,  and  some  money 
on  bond;  all  the  property  being  worth  over  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars — a  very  large  amount  for  those  days  <£ 
Directly  after  the  wedding,  the  couple  moved  to  Mount 
Vernon,  taking  a  good  many  of  the  slaves  with  them.  Shortly 
after,  arrangements  were  under  way  to  rebuild  the  house, 
and  the  plans  that  finally  developed  into  the  present  mansion 
were  begun  &  «jt 

Washington's  letters  and  diary  contain  very  few  references 
to  his  wife,  and  none  of  the  many  visitors  to  Mount  Vernon 
took  pains  to  testify  either  to  her  wit  or  to  her  intellect.  We 
know  that  the  housekeeping  at  Mount  Vernon  proved  too 
much  for  her  ability,  and  that  a  woman  was  hired  to  oversee 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON 25 

the  household.  And  hi  this  reference  a  complaint  is  found 
from  the  General  that  "housekeeper  has  done  gone  and 
left  things  in  confusion."  He  had  his  troubles. 
Martha's  education  was  not  equal  to  writing  a  presentable 
letter,  for  we  find  that  her  husband  wrote  the  first  draft  of 
all  important  missives  that  it  was  necessary  for  her  to  send, 
and  she  copied  them  even  to  his  mistakes  in  spelling.  Very 
patient  was  he  about  this,  and  even  when  he  was  President 
and  harried  constantly  we  find  him  stopping  to  acknowledge 
for  her  "an  invitation  to  take  some  Tea,"  and  at  the  bottom 
of  the  sheet  adding  a  pious  bit  of  finesse,  thus :  "The  Presi 
dent  requests  me  to  send  his  compliments  and  only  regrets 
that  the  pressure  of  affairs  compels  him  to  forego  the 
Pleasure  of  seeing  you." 

After  Washington's  death,  his  wife  destroyed  the  letters  he  had 
written  her — many  hundred  in  number — an  offense  the  world 
is  not  yet  quite  willing  to  forget,  even  though  it  has  forgiven. 


26  GEORGE    WASHINGTON 


we  have  been  told  that  when  Washington 
was  six  years  old  he  could  not  tell  a  lie,  yet  he  after- 
wards  partially  overcame  the  disability  jfc  On  one 
occasion  he  writes  to  a  friend  that  the  mosquitoes  of  New 
Jersey  "can  bite  through  the  thickest  boot,"  and  though 
a  contemporary  clergyman,  greatly  flurried,  explains  that 
he  meant  "stocking,"  we  insist  that  the  statement  shall 
stand  as  the  Father  of  his  Country  expressed  it.  Washington 
also  records  without  a  blush,  "I  announced  that  I  would 
leave  at  8  and  then  immediately  gave  private  Orders  to 
go  at  5,  so  to  avoid  the  Throng."  Another  time  when  he 
discharged  an  overseer  for  incompetency  he  lessened  the 
pain  of  parting  by  writing  for  the  fellow  "a  Character." 
When  he  went  to  Boston  and  was  named  as  Commander 
of  the  Army,  his  chief  concern  seemed  to  be  how  he  would 
make  peace  with  Martha.  Ho!  ye  married  men!  do  you 
understand  the  situation?  He  was  to  be  away  for  a  year, 
two,  or  possibly  three,  and  his  wife  did  not  have  an  inkling 
of  it.  Now,  he  must  break  the  news  to  her. 
As  plainly  shown  by  Cabot  Lodge  and  other  historians, 
there  was  much  rivalry  for  the  office,  and  it  was  only 
allotted  to  the  South  as  a  political  deal  after  much  bickering. 
Washington  had  been  a  passive  but  very  willing  candidate, 
and  after  a  struggle  his  friends  secured  him  the  prize  —  and 
now  what  to  do  with  Martha  !  Writing  to  her,  among  other 
things  he  says,  "You  may  believe  me,  my  dear  Patsy,  when 
I  assure  you  in  the  most  solemn  manner  that  so  far  from 
seeking  the  appointment  I  have  done  all  in  my  power  to 
avoid  it."  The  man  who  will  not  fabricate  a  bit  in  order  to 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON 27 

keep  peace  with  the  wife  of  his  bosom  is  not  much  of  a  man. 
But  "Patsy's"  objections  were  overcome,  and  beyond  a 
few  chidings  and  sundry  complainings,  she  did  nothing  to 
block  the  great  game  of  war. 

At  Princeton,  Washington  ordered  campfires  to  be  built 
along  the  brow  of  a  hill  for  a  mile,  and  when  the  fires  were 
well  lighted,  he  withdrew  his  army,  marched  around  to 
the  other  side,  and  surprised  the  enemy  at  daylight.  At 
Brooklyn,  he  used  masked  batteries,  and  presented  a  fierce 
row  of  round,  black  spots  painted  on  canvas  that,  from  the 
city,  looked  like  the  mouths  of  cannon  at  which  men  seek 
the  bauble  reputation.  It  is  said  he  also  sent  a  note  threatening 
to  fire  these  sham  cannon,  on  receiving  which  the  enemy 
hastily  moved  beyond  range.  Perceiving  afterwards  that 
they  had  been  imposed  upon,  the  brave  English  sent  word 
to  "shoot  and  be  damned."  Evidently,  Washington  con 
sidered  that  all  things  are  fair  in  love  and  war. 
Washington  talked  but  little,  and  his  usual  air  was  one  of 
melancholy  that  stopped  just  short  of  sadness.  All  this, 
with  the  firmness  of  his  features  and  the  dignity  of  his 
carriage,  gave  the  impression  of  sternness  and  severity. 
And  these  things  gave  rise  to  the  popular  conception  that 
he  had  small  sense  of  humor ;  yet  he  surely  was  fond  of  a 
quiet  smile. 

At  one  time,  Congress  insisted  that  a  standing  army  of  five 
thousand  men  was  too  large;  Washington  replied  that  if 
England  would  agree  never  to  invade  this  country  with 
more  than  three  thousand  men,  he  would  be  perfectly 
willing  that  our  army  should  be  reduced  to  four  thousand. 


28 GEORGE    WASHINGTON 

IJWhen  the  King  of  Spain,  knowing  he  was  a  farmer, 
thoughtfully  sent  him  a  present  of  a  jackass,  Washington 
proposed  naming  the  animal  in  honor  of  the  donor;  and 
in  writing  to  friends  about  the  present,  draws  invidious 
comparisons  between  the  gift  and  the  giver.  Evidently, 
the  joke  pleased  him,  for  he  repeats  it  in  different  letters ; 
thus  showing  how,  when  he  sat  down  to  clear  his  desk  of 
correspondence,  he  economized  energy  by  following  a  form. 
So,  we  now  find  letters  that  are  almost  identical,  even  to 
jokes,  sent  to  persons  in  South  Carolina  and  in  Massachu 
setts.  Doubtless  the  good  man  thought  they  would  never 
be  compared,  for  how  could  he  foresee  that  an  autograph- 
dealer  in  New  York  would  eventually  catalog  them  at 
twenty-two  dollars  fifty  cents  each,  or  that  a  very  proper 
but  half-affectionate  missive  of  his  to  a  Faire  Ladye  would 
be  sold  by  her  great-granddaughter  for  fifty  dollars? 
In  Seventeen  Hundred  Ninety-three  there  were  on  the 
Mount  Vernon  plantation  three  hundred  seventy  head  of 
cattle,  and  Washington  appends  to  the  report  a  sad  regret 
that,  with  all  this  number  of  horned  beasts,  he  yet  has  to 
buy  butter.  There  is  also  a  fine,  grim  humor  shown  in  the 
incident  of  a  flag  of  truce  coming  in  at  New  York,  bearing 
a  message  from  General  Howe,  addressed  to  "Mr.  Washing 
ton."  The  General  took  the  letter  from  the  hand  of  the 
redcoat,  glanced  at  the  superscription,  and  said:  "Why, 
this  letter  is  not  for  me !  It  is  directed  to  a  planter  in  Virginia. 
I  '11  keep  it  and  give  it  to  him  at  the  end  of  the  war."  Then, 
cramming  the  letter  into  his  pocket,  he  ordered  the  flag  of 
truce  out  of  the  lines  and  directed  the  gunners  to  stand  by. 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON 29 

In  an  hour,  another  letter  came  back  addressed  to  "His 
Excellency,  General  Washington." 

It  was  not  long  after  this  that  a  soldier  brought  to  Washing 
ton  a  dog  that  had  been  found  wearing  a  collar  with  the 
name  of  General  Howe  engraved  on  it.  Washington  returned 
the  dog  by  a  special  messenger  with  a  note  reading,  "General 
Washington  sends  his  compliments  to  General  Howe,  and 
begs  to  return  one  dog  that  evidently  belongs  to  him."  In 
this  instance,  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  Washington  acted 
in  sober  good  faith,  but  was  the  victim  of  a  practical  joke 
on  the  part  of  one  of  his  aides. 

Another  remark  that  sounds  like  a  joke,  but  perhaps  was 
not  one,  was  when,  on  taking  command  of  the  army  at 
Boston,  the  General  writes  to  his  lifelong  friend,  Doctor 
Craik,  asking  what  he  can  do  for  him,  and  adding  a  sentiment 
still  in  the  air:  "But  these  Massachusetts  people  suffer 
nothing  to  go  by  them  that  they  can  lay  their  hands  on." 
In  another  letter  he  pays  his  compliments  to  Connecticut 
thus:  "Their  impecunious  meanness  surpasses  belief. "j* 
When  Cornwallis  surrendered  at  Yorktown,  Washington 
refused  to  humiliate  him  and  his  officers  by  accepting  their 
swords.  He  treated  Cornwallis  as  his  guest,  and  even  "gave 
a  dinner  in  his  honor."  At  this  dinner,  Rochambeau  being 
asked  for  a  toast  gave  "The  United  States."  Washington 
proposed  "The  King  of  France."  Cornwallis  merely  gave 
"The  King,"  and  Washington,  putting  the  toast,  expressed 
it  as  Cornwallis  intended,  "The  King  of  England,"  and 
added  a  sentiment  of  his  own  that  made  even  Cornwallis 
laugh — "May  he  stay  there!  "  Washington's  treatment  of 


30 GEORGE    WASHINGTON 

Cornwallis  made  him  a  lifelong  friend.  Many  years  after,  when 
Cornwallis  was  Governor-General  of  India,  he  sent  a  message 
to  his  old  antagonist,  wishing  him  "  prosperity  and  enjoy 
ment,"  adding,  "As  for  myself,  I  am  yet  in  troubled  waters." 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON 31 

NCE  in  a  century,  possibly,  a  being  is  born  who 
possesses  a  transcendent  insight,  and  him  we  call 
a  "genius."  Shakespeare,  for  instance,  to  whom  all 
knowledge  lay  open ;  Joan  of  Arc ;  the  artist  Turner ;  Sweden- 
borg,  the  mystic — these  are  the  men  who  know  a  royal  road 
to  geometry ;  but  we  may  safely  leave  them  out  of  account 
when  we  deal  with  the  builders  of  a  State,  for  among  states 
men  there  are  no  geniuses. 

Nobody  knows  just  what  a  genius  is  or  what  he  may  do  next ; 
he  boils  at  an  unknown  temperature,  and  often  explodes 
at  a  touch.  He  is  uncertain  and  therefore  unsafe.  His  best 
results  are  conjured  forth,  but  no  man  has  yet  conjured 
forth  a  Nation — it  is  all  slow,  patient,  painstaking  work 
along  mathematical  lines.  Washington  was  a  mathematician 
and  therefore  not  a  genius.  We  call  him  a  great  man,  but  his 
greatness  was  of  that  sort  in  which  we  all  can  share;  his 
virtues  were  of  a  kind  that,  in  degree,  we  too  may  possess. 
Any  man  who  succeeds  in  a  legitimate  business  works  with 
the  same  tools  that  Washington  used.  Washington  was 
human.  We  know  the  man ;  we  understand  him ;  we  com 
prehend  how  he  succeeded,  for  with  him  there  were  no  tricks, 
no  legerdemain,  no  secrets.  He  is  very  near  to  us. 
Washington  is  indeed  first  in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen. 
Washington  has  no  detractors.  There  may  come  a  time  when 
another  will  take  first  place  in  the  affections  of  the  people, 
but  that  time  is  not  yet  ripe.  Lincoln  stood  between  men 
who  now  live  and  the  prizes  they  coveted;  thousands  still 
tread  the  earth  whom  he  benefited,  and  neither  class  can 
forgive,  for  they  are  of  clay.  But  all  those  who  lived  when 


32 GEORGE    WASHINGTON 

Washington  lived  are  gone;  not  one  survives;  even  the 
last  body-servant,  who  confused  memory  with  hearsay, 
has  departed  babbling  to  his  rest. 

We  know  all  of  Washington  we  will  ever  know;  there  are 
no  more  documents  to  present,  no  partisan  witnesses  to 
examine,  no  prejudices  to  remove.  His  purity  of  purpose 
stands  unimpeached ;  his  steadfast  earnestness  and  sterling 
honesty  are  our  priceless  examples. 
We  love  the  man. 
We  call  him  Father. 


BENJAMIN    PRANK  I 


BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN 


I  WILL  speak  ill  of  no  man,  not  even  in  matter  of  truth ; 
but  rather  excuse  the  faults  I  hear  charged  upon  others, 
and  upon  proper  occasion  speak  all  the  good  I  know  of 
everybody. — Franklin's  Journal. 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 


lENJAMIN  FRANKLIN  was  twelve  years 
old.  He  was  large  and  strong  and  fat  and 
good-natured,  and  had  a  full-moon  face 
and  red  cheeks  that  made  him  look  like 
a  country  bumpkin.  He  was  born  in  Boston 
within  twenty  yards  of  the  church  called 
"Old  South,"  but  the  Franklins  now  lived 
at  the  corner  of  Congress  and  Hanover 
Streets,  where  to  this  day  there  swings  in 
the  breeze  a  gilded  ball,  and  on  it  the 
legend,  "Josiah  Franklin,  Soap-Boiler." 
CJ  Benjamin  was  the  fifteenth  child  in  the 
family;  and  several  having  grown  to 
maturity  and  flown,  there  were  thirteen 
at  the  table  when  little  Ben  first  sat  in  the 
high  chair.  But  the  Franklins  were  not 
superstitious,  and  if  little  Ben  ever  prayed 
that  another  would  be  born,  just  for  luck, 
we  know  nothing  of  it.  His  mother  loved 
him  very  much  and  indulged  him  in  many 
ways,  for  he  was  always  her  baby  boy, 
but  the  father  thought  that  because  he 
was  good-natured  he  was  also  lazy  and 
should  be  disciplined. 
Once  upon  a  time  the  father  was  packing 
a  barrel  of  beef  in  the  cellar,  and  Ben 
was  helping  him,  and  as  the  father  always 
said  grace  at  table,  the  boy  suggested  he 
ask  a  blessing,  once  for  all,  on  the  barrel 


38 BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN 

of  beef  and  thus  economize  breath.  But  economics  along 
that  line  did  not  appeal  to  Josiah  Franklin,  for  this  was 
early  in  Seventeen  Hundred  Eighteen,  and  Josiah  was  a 
Presbyterian  and  lived  in  Boston. 

The  boy  was  not  religious,  for  he  never  "went  forward," 
and  only  went  to  church  because  he  had  to,  and  read  "Plu 
tarch's  Lives"  with  much  more  relish  than  he  did  "Saint's 
Rest."  But  he  had  great  curiosity  and  asked  questions  until 
his  mother  would  say,  "Goodness  gracious,  go  and  play!  " 
CJ  And  as  the  boy  was  n't  very  religious  or  very  fond  of  work, 
his  father  and  mother  decided  that  there  were  only  two 
careers  open  for  him :  the  mother  proposed  that  he  be  made 
a  preacher,  but  his  father  said,  send  him  to  sea.  To  go  to 
sea  under  a  good  strict  captain  would  discipline  him,  and 
to  send  him  off  and  put  him  under  the  care  of  the  Reverend 
Doctor  Thirdly  would  answer  the  same  purpose — which 
course  should  be  pursued?  But  Pallas  Athene,  who  was 
to  watch  over  this  lad's  destinies  all  through  life,  preserved 
him  from  either. 

His  parents'  aspirations  extended  even  to  his  becoming 
captain  of  a  schooner  or  pastor  of  the  First  Church  at 
Roxbury.  And  no  doubt  he  could  have  sailed  the  schooner 
around  the  globe  in  safety,  or  filled  the  pulpit  with  a  degree 
of  power  that  would  have  caused  consternation  to  reign  in 
the  heart  of  every  other  preacher  in  town ;  but  Fate  saved 
him  that  he  might  take  the  Ship  of  State,  when  she  threatened 
to  strand  on  the  rocks  of  adversity,  and  pilot  her  into  peaceful 
waters,  and  to  preach  such  sermons  to  America  that  their 
eloquence  still  moves  us  to  better  things. 


BENJAMIN     FRANKLIN 39 

Parents  think  that  what  they  say  about  their  children  goes, 
and  once  in  an  awfully  long  time  it  does,  but  the  men  who 
become  great  and  learned  usually  do  so  in  spite  of  their 
parents — which  remark  was  first  made  by  Martin  Luther, 
but  need  not  be  discredited  on  that  account. 
Ben's  oldest  brother  was  James.  Now,  James  was  nearly 
forty ;  he  was  tall  and  slender,  stooped  a  little,  and  had  sandy 
whiskers,  and  a  nervous  cough,  and  positive  ideas  on  many 
subjects— one  of  which  was  that  he  was  a  printer  jt  His 
apprentice,  or  "devil,"  had  left  him,  because  the  devil  did 
not  like  to  be  cuffed  whenever  the  compositor  shuffled  his 
fonts.  James  needed  another  apprentice,  and  proposed  to 
take  his  younger  brother  and  make  a  man  of  him  if  the 
old  folks  were  willing.  The  old  folks  were  willing  and  Ben 
was  duly  bound  by  law  to  his  brother,  agreeing  to  serve 
him  faithfully  as  Jacob  served  Laban  for  seven  years  and 
two  years  more. 

Science  has  explained  many  things,  but  it  has  not  yet  told 
why  it  sometimes  happens  that  when  seventeen  eggs  are 
hatched,  the  brood  will  consist  of  sixteen  barnyard  fowls 
and  one  eagle. 

James  Franklin  was  a  man  of  small  capacity,  whimsical, 
jealous  and  arbitrary.  But  if  he  cuffed  his  apprentice  Benja 
min  when  the  compositor  blundered,  and  when  he  did  n't, 
it  was  his  legal  right ;  and  the  master  who  did  not  occasionally 
kick  his  apprentices  was  considered  derelict  to  duty.  The 
boy  ran  errands,  cleaned  the  presses,  swept  the  shop,  tied 
up  bundles,  did  the  tasks  that  no  one  else  would  do;  and 
incidentally  "learned  the  case."  Then  he  set  type,  and  after 


40 BENJAMIN     FRANKLIN 

a  while  ran  a  press  jt  And  in  those  days  a  printer  ranked 
above  a  common  mechanic.  A  man  who  was  a  printer  was 
a  literary  man,  as  were  the  master  printers  of  London  and 
Venice.  A  printer  was  a  man  of  taste  «jt  All  editors  were 
printers,  and  usually  composed  the  matter  as  they  set  it 
up  in  type.  Thus  we  now  have  a  room  called  a  "composing- 
room,"  a  "composing-stick,"  etc.  People  once  addressed 
"Mr.  Printer,"  not  Mr.  Editor,  and  when  they  met  "Mr. 
Printer"  on  the  street  removed  their  hats — but  not  in 
Philadelphia. 

Young  Franklin  felt  a  proper  degree  of  pride  in  his  work, 
if  not  vanity.  In  fact,  he  himself  has  said  that  vanity  is  a 
good  thing,  and  whenever  he  saw  it  come  flaunting  down 
the  street,  always  made  way,  knowing  that  there  was  virtue 
somewhere  back  of  it — out  of  sight  perhaps,  but  still  there. 
James,  being  a  brother,  had  no  confidence  in  Ben's  intellect, 
so  when  Ben  wrote  short  articles  on  this  and  that,  he  tucked 
them  under  the  door  so  that  James  would  find  them  in  the 
morning.  James  showed  these  articles  to  his  friends,  and 
they  all  voted  them  very  fine,  and  concluded  they  must 
have  been  written  by  Doctor  So-and-So,  Ph.  D.,  who,  like 
Lord  Bacon,  was  a  very  modest  man  and  did  not  care  to 
see  his  name  in  print. 

Yet,  by  and  by,  it  came  out  who  it  was  that  wrote  the  anony 
mous  "hot  stuff,"  and  then  James  did  not  think  it  was  quite 
so  good  as  he  at  first  thought,  and  moreover,  declared  he 
knew  whose  it  was  all  the  time.  Ben  was  eighteen  and  had 
read  Montaigne,  and  Collins,  and  Shaftesbury,  and  Hume. 
When  he  wrote  he  expressed  thoughts  that  then  were  con- 


BENJAMIN     FRANKLIN 41 

sidered  very  dreadful,  but  that  can  now  be  heard  proclaimed 
even  in  good  orthodox  churches.  But  Ben  had  wit  and  to 
spare,  and  he  leveled  it  at  government  officials  and  preachers, 
and  these  gentlemen  did  not  relish  the  jokes — people  seldom 
relish  jokes  at  their  own  expense — and  they  sought  to  sup 
press  the  newspaper  that  the  Franklin  brothers  published. 
<!  The  blame  for  all  the  trouble  James  heaped  upon  Ben 
jamin,  and  all  the  credit  for  success  he  took  to  himself  Jt 
James  declared  that  Ben  had  the  big  head — and  he  probably 
was  right ;  but  he  forgot  that  the  big  head,  like  mumps  and 
measles  and  everything  else  in  life,  is  self -limiting  and  good 
in  its  way.  So,  to  teach  Ben  his  proper  place,  James  reminded 
him  that  he  was  only  an  apprentice,  with  three  years  yet 
to  serve,  and  that  he  should  be  seen  seldom  and  not  heard 
all  the  time,  and  that  if  he  ran  away  he  would  send  a  con 
stable  after  him  and  fetch  him  back. 
Ben  evidently  had  a  mind  open  to  suggestive  influences, 
for  the  remark  about  running  away  prompted  him  to  do  so. 
He  sold  some  of  his  books  and  got  himself  secreted  on  board 
a  ship  about  to  sail  for  New  York. 

Arriving  at  New  York,  in  three  days  he  found  the  broad- 
beamed  Dutch  had  small  use  for  printers  and  no  special 
admiration  for  the  art  preservative;  and  he  started  for 
Philadelphia. 

Every  one  knows  how  he  landed  in  a  small  boat  at  the  foot 
of  Market  Street  with  only  a  few  coppers  in  his  pocket, 
and  made  his  way  to  a  bakeshop  and  asked  for  a  threepenny 
loaf  of  bread,  and  being  told  they  had  no  threepenny  loaves, 
then  asked  for  threepenny 's  worth  of  any  kind  of  bread,  and 


42 BENJAMIN     FRANKLIN 

was  given  three  loaves.  Where  is  the  man  who  in  a  strange 
land  has  not  suffered  rather  than  reveal  his  ignorance  before 
a  shopkeeper?  When  I  was  first  in  England  and  could  not 
compute  readily  in  shillings  and  pence,  I  would  toss  out  a 
gold  piece  when  I  made  a  purchase  and  assume  a  'igh  and 
'aughty  mien.  And  that  Philadelphia  baker  probably  died 
in  blissful  ignorance  of  the  fact  that  the  youth  who  was 
to  be  America's  pride  bought  from  him  three  loaves  of  bread 
when  he  wanted  only  one. 

The  runaway  Ben  had  a  downy  beard  all  over  his  face, 
and  as  he  took  his  three  loaves  and  walked  up  Market  Street, 
with  a  loaf  under  each  arm,  munching  on  the  third,  he  was 
smiled  upon  in  merry  mirth  by  the  buxom  Deborah  Read,  as 
she  stood  in  the  doorway  of  her  father's  house.  Yet  Franklin 
got  even  with  her,  for  some  months  after,  he  went  back  that 
way  and  courted  her,  and  she  grew  to  love  him,  and  they 
"exchanged  promises,"  he  says.  After  some  months  of  work 
and  love-making,  Franklin  sailed  away  to  England  on  a  wild- 
goose  chase.  He  promised  to  return  soon  and  make  Deborah 
his  wife.  But  he  wrote  only  one  solitary  letter  to  the  broken 
hearted  girl  and  did  not  come  back  for  nearly  two  years. 


BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN 43 

rIME  is  the  great  avenger  as  well  as  educator;  only 
the  education  is  usually  deferred  until  it  no  longer 
avails  in  this  incarnation,  and  is  valuable  only  for 
advice — and  nobody  wants  advice.  Deathbed  repentances 
may  be  legal-tender  for  salvation  in  another  world,  but 
for  this  they  are  below  par,  and  regeneration  that  is  post 
poned  until  the  man  has  no  further  capacity  to  sin  is  little 
better.  For  sin  is  only  perverted  power,  and  the  man  without 
capacity  to  sin  neither  has  ability  to  do  good — is  n't  that  so? 
His  soul  is  a  Dead  Sea  that  supports  neither  amoeba  nor  fish, 
neither  noxious  bacilli  nor  useful  life.  Happy  is  the  man 
who  conserves  his  God-given  power  until  wisdom  and  not 
passion  shall  direct  it.  So,  the  younger  in  life  a  man  makes 
the  resolve  to  turn  and  live,  the  better  for  that  man  and  the 
better  for  the  world. 

Once  upon  a  time  Carlyle  took  Milburn,  the  blind  preacher, 
out  on  to  Chelsea  embankment  and  showed  the  sightless 
man  where  Franklin  plunged  into  the  Thames  and  swam 
to  Blackfriars  Bridge.  "He  might  have  stayed  here,"  said 
Thomas  Carlyle,  "and  become  a  swimming-teacher,  but 
God  had  other  work  for  him !  "  Franklin  had  many  oppor 
tunities  to  stop  and  become  a  victim  of  arrested  development, 
but  he  never  embraced  the  occasion.  He  could  have  stayed 
in  Boston  and  been  a  humdrum  preacher,  or  a  thrifty  sea- 
captain,  or  an  ordinary  printer ;  or  he  could  have  remained 
in  London,  and  been,  like  his  friend  Ralph,  a  clever  writer 
of  doggerel,  and  a  supporter  of  the  political  party  that  would 
pay  the  most. 
Benjamin  Franklin  was  twenty  years  old  when  he  returned 


44 BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN 

from  England.  The  ship  was  beaten  back  by  headwinds 
and  blown  out  of  her  course  by  blizzards,  and  becalmed 
at  times,  so  it  took  eighty-two  days  to  make  the  voyage. 
A  worthy  old  clergyman  tells  me  this  was  so  ordained  and 
ordered  that  Benjamin  might  have  time  to  meditate  on  the 
follies  of  youth  and  shape  his  course  for  the  future,  and  I 
do  not  argue  the  case,  for  I  am  quite  willing  to  admit  that 
my  friend,  the  clergyman,  has  the  facts. 
Yes,  we  must  be  "converted,"  uborn  again,"  "regenerated," 
or  whatever  you  may  be  pleased  to  call  it.  Sometimes — 
very  often — it  is  love  that  reforms  a  man,  sometimes  sick 
ness,  sometimes  sore  bereavement.  Doctor  Talmage  says 
that  with  Saint  Paul  it  was  a  sunstroke,  and  this  may  be  so, 
for  surely  Saul  of  Tarsus  on  his  way  to  Damascus  to  persecute 
Christians  was  not  in  love.  Love  forgives  to  seventy  times 
seven  and  persecutes  nobody. 

We  do  not  know  just  what  it  was  that  turned  Franklin; 
he  had  tried  folly — we  know  that — and  he  just  seems  to 
have  anticipated  Browning  and  concluded: 

It 's  wiser  being  good  than  bad ; 

It 's  safer  being  meek  than  fierce ; 

It 's  better  being  sane  than  mad. 

On  this  voyage  the  young  printer  was  thrust  down  into 
the  depths  and  made  to  wrestle  with  the  powers  of  darkness ; 
and  in  the  remorse  of  soul  that  came  over  him,  he  made  a 
liturgy  to  be  repeated  night  and  morning,  and  at  midday. 
There  were  many  items  in  this  ritual — all  of  which  were 
corrected  and  amended  from  time  to  time  in  after-years. 
Here  are  a  few  paragraphs  that  represent  the  longings  and 


BENJAMIN     FRANKLIN 45 

trend  of  the  lad's  heart.  His  prayer  was :  "That  I  may  have 
tenderness  for  the  meek ;  that  I  may  be  kind  to  my  neighbors, 
good-natured  to  my  companions  and  hospitable  to  strangers. 
Help  me,  O  God ! 

"That  I  may  be  averse  to  craft  and  overreaching,  abhor 
extortion  and  every  kind  of  weakness  and  wickedness.  Help 
me,  0  God ! 

"That  I  may  have  constant  regard  to  honor  and  probity; 
that  I  may  possess  an  innocent  and  good  conscience,  and 
at  length  become  truly  virtuous  and  magnanimous.  Help 
me,  O  God! 

"That  I  may  refrain  from  calumny  and  detraction;  that  I 
may  abhor  deceit,  and  avoid  lying,  envy  and  fraud,  flattery, 
hatred,  malice  and  ingratitude.  Help  me,  0  God ! " 
Then,  in  addition,  he  formed  rules  of  conduct  and  wrote 
them  out  and  committed  them  to  memory.  The  maxims 
he  adopted  are  old  as  thought,  yet  can  never  become  anti 
quated,  for  in  morals  there  is  nothing  either  new  or  old, 
neither  can  there  be. 

On  that  return  voyage  from  England,  he  inwardly  vowed 
that  his  first  act  on  getting  ashore  would  be  to  find  Deborah 
Read  and  make  peace  with  her  and  his  conscience.  And 
true  to  his  vow,  he  found  her,  but  she  was  the  wife  of  another. 
Her  mother  believed  that  Franklin  had  run  away  simply  to 
get  rid  of  her,  and  the  poor  girl,  dazed  and  forlorn,  bereft 
of  will,  had  been  induced  to  marry  a  man  by  the  name  of 
Rogers,  who  was  a  potter  and  also  a  potterer,  but  who 
Franklin  says  was  "a  very  good  potter." 
After  some  months,  Deborah  left  the  potter,  because  she 


46 BENJAMIN     FRANKLIN 

did  not  like  to  be  reproved  with  a  strap,  and  went  home  to 
her  mother. 

Franklin  was  now  well  in  the  way  of  prosperity,  aged  twenty- 
four,  with  a  little  printing  business,  plans  plus,  and  ambitions 
to  spare.  He  had  had  his  little  fling  in  life,  and  had  done 
various  things  of  which  he  was  ashamed;  and  the  foolish 
things  that  Deborah  had  done  were  no  worse  than  those 
of  which  he  had  been  guilty.  So  he  called  on  her,  and  they 
talked  it  over  and  made  honest  confessions  that  are  good 
for  the  soul.  The  potter  disappeared — no  one  knew  where — 
some  said  he  was  dead,  but  Benjamin  and  Deborah  did  not 
wear  mourning.  They  took  rumor's  word  for  it,  and  thanked 
God,  and  went  to  a  church  and  were  married. 
Deborah  brought  to  the  firm  a  very  small  dowry ;  and  Ben 
jamin  contributed  a  bright  baby  boy,  aged  two  years, 
captured  no  one  knows  just  where.  This  boy  was  William 
Franklin,  who  grew  up  into  a  very  excellent  man,  and  the 
worst  that  can  be  said  of  him  is  that  he  became  Governor 
of  New  Jersey.  He  loved  and  respected  his  father,  and  called 
Deborah  mother,  and  loved  her  very  much.  And  she  was 
worthy  of  all  love,  and  ever  treated  him  with  tenderness 
and  gentlest  considerate  care.  Possibly  a  blot  on  the  'scutch 
eon  may,  in  the  working  of  God's  providence,  not  always 
be  a  dire  misfortune,  for  it  sometimes  has  the  effect  of 
binding  broken  hearts  as  nothing  else  can,  as  a  cicatrice 
toughens  the  fiber. 

Deborah  had  not  much  education,  but  she  had  good,  sturdy 
commonsense,  which  is  better  if  you  are  forced  to  make 
choice.  She  set  herself  to  help  her  husband  in  every  way 


BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN 


47 


possible,  and  so  far  as  I  know,  never  sighed  for  one  of  those 
things  you  call  "a  career."  She  even  worked  in  the  printing- 
office,  folding,  stitching,  and  doing  up  bundles. 
Long  years  afterward,  when  Franklin  was  Ambassador 
of  the  American  Colonies  in  France,  he  told  with  pride 
that  the  clothes  he  wore  were  spun,  woven,  cut  out,  and 
made  into  garments — all  by  his  wife's  own  hands.  Franklin's 
love  for  Deborah  was  very  steadfast.  Together  they  became 
rich  and  respected,  won  worldwide  fame,  and  honors  came 
that  way  such  as  no  American  before  or  since  has  ever 
received  Jt,  jt, 

And  when  I  say,  "God  bless  all  good  women  who  help 
men  do  their  work,"  I  simply  repeat  the  words  once  used 
by  Benjamin  Franklin  when  he  had  Deborah  in  mind. 


48  BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN 


m 


'HEN  Franklin  was  forty-two,  he  had  accumulated 
a  fortune  of  seventy-five  thousand  dollars.  It  gave 
him  an  income  of  about  four  thousand  dollars  a 
year,  which  he  said  was  all  he  wanted ;  so  he  sold  out  his 
business,  intending  to  devote  his  entire  energies  to  the  study 
of  science  and  languages.  He  had  lived  just  one-half  his 
days ;  and  had  he  then  passed  out,  his  life  could  have  been 
summed  up  as  one  of  the  most  useful  that  ever  has  been 
lived.  He  had  founded  and  been  the  life  of  the  Junto  Club — 
the  most  sensible  and  beneficent  club  of  which  I  ever  heard. 
<JThe  series  of  questions  asked  at  every  meeting  of  the  Junto, 
so  mirror  the  life  and  habit  of  thought  of  Franklin  that  we 
had  better  glance  at  a  few  of  them: 

1.  Have  you  read  over  these  queries  this  morning,  in  order 
to  consider  what  you  might  have  to  offer  the  Junto,  touching 
any  one  of  them? 

2.  Have  you  met  with  anything  in  the  author  you  last  read, 
remarkable,  or  suitable  to  be  communicated  to  the  Junto ; 
particularly  in  history,  morality,  poetry,  physics,  travels, 
mechanical  arts,  or  other  parts  of  knowledge? 

3.  Do  you  know  of  a  fellow-citizen,  who  has  lately  done 
a  worthy  action,  deserving  praise  and  imitation;  or  who 
has  lately  committed  an  error,  proper  for  us  to  be  warned 
against  and  avoid? 

4.  What  unhappy  effects  of  intemperance  have  you  lately 
observed  or  heard;  of  imprudence,  of  passion,  or  of  any 
other  vice  or  folly? 

5.  What  happy  effects  of  temperance,   of  prudence,   of 
moderation,  or  of  any  other  virtue? 


BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN 49 

6.  Do  you  think  of  anything  at  present  in  which  the  members 
of  the  Junto  may  be  serviceable  to  mankind,  to  their  country, 
to  their  friends,  or  to  themselves? 

7.  Hath  any  deserving  stranger  arrived  hi  town  since  last 
meeting  that  you  have  heard  of?  And  what  have  you  heard 
or  observed  of  his  character  or  merits?  And  whether,  think 
you,  it  lies  in  the  power  of  the  Junto  to  oblige  him,  or 
encourage  him  as  he  deserves? 

8.  Do  you  know  of  any  deserving  young  beginner,  lately 
set  up,  whom  it  lies  hi  the  power  of  the  Junto  in  any  way 
to  encourage? 

9.  Have  you  lately  observed  any  defect  in  the  laws  of  your 
country,  of  which  it  would  be  proper  to  move  the  legislature 
for  an  amendment?  Or  do  you  know  of  any  beneficial  law 
that  is  wanting? 

10.  Have  you  lately  observed  any  encroachment  on  the 
just  liberties  of  the  people? 

11.  In  what  manner  can  the  Junto,  or  any  of  its  members, 
assist  you  in  any  of  your  honorable  designs? 

12.  Have  you  any  weighty  affair  on  hand  in  which  you 
think  the  advice  of  the  Junto  may  be  of  service? 

13.  What  benefits  have  you  lately  received  from  any  man 
not  present? 

14.  Is  there  any  difficulty  in  matters  of  opinion,  of  justice 
and  injustice,  which  you  would  gladly  have  discussed  at 
this  time? 

The  Junto  led  to  the  establishment,  by  Franklin,  of  the 
Philadelphia  Public  Library,  which  became  the  parent  of 
all  public  libraries  in  America  jt  He  also  organized  and 


50 BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN 

equipped  a  fire-company;  paved  and  lighted  the  streets  of 
Philadelphia;  established  a  high  school  and  an  academy 
for  the  study  of  English  branches ;  founded  the  Philadelphia 
Public  Hospital;  invented  the  toggle-joint  printing-press, 
the  Franklin  stove,  and  various  other  useful  mechanical 
devices  jf>  & 

After  his  retirement  from  business,  Franklin  enjoyed  seven 
years  of  what  he  called  leisure,  but  they  were  years  of  study 
and  application ;  years  of  happiness  and  sweet  content,  but 
years  of  aspiration  and  an  earnest  looking  into  the  future. 
His  experiments  with  kite  and  key  had  made  his  name 
known  hi  all  the  scientific  circles  of  Europe,  and  his  sug 
gestive  writings  on  the  subject  of  electricity  had  caused 
Goethe  to  lay  down  his  pen  and  go  to  rubbing  amber  for 
the  edification  of  all  Weimar.  Franklin  was  in  correspondence 
with  the  greatest  minds  of  Europe,  and  what  his  "Poor 
Richard  Almanac  "  had  done  for  the  plain  people  of  America, 
his  pamphlets  were  now  doing  for  the  philosophers  of  the 
Old  World  jt  jt 

In  Seventeen  Hundred  Fifty-four,  he  wrote  a  treatise  showing 
the  Colonies  that  they  must  be  united,  and  this  was  the  first 
public  word  that  was  to  grow  and  crystallize  and  become 
the  United  States  of  America.  Before  that,  the  Colonies 
were  simply  single,  independent,  jealous  and  bickering 
overgrown  clans.  Franklin  showed  for  the  first  time  that 
they  must  unite  hi  mutual  aims, 

In  Seventeen  Hundred  Fifty-seven,  matters  were  getting 
a  little  strained  between  the  Province  of  Pennsylvania  and 
England.  "The  lawmakers  of  England  do  not  understand 


BENJAMIN     FRANKLIN 51 

us — some  one  should  go  there  as  an  authorized  agent  to 
plead  our  cause,"  and  Franklin  was  at  once  chosen  as  the 
man  of  strongest  personality  and  soundest  sense.  So  Franklin 
went  to  England  and  remained  there  for  five  years  as  agent 
for  the  Colonies. 

He  then  returned  home,  but  after  two  years  the  Stamp  Act 
had  stirred  up  the  public  temper  to  a  degree  that  made 
revolution  imminent,  and  Franklin  again  went  to  England 
to  plead  for  justice.  The  record  of  the  ten  years  he  now  spent 
in  London  is  told  by  Bancroft  in  a  hundred  pages.  Bancroft 
is  very  good,  and  I  have  no  desire  to  rival  him,  so  suffice  it 
to  say  that  Franklin  did  all  that  any  man  could  have  done 
to  avert  the  coming  War  of  the  Revolution.  Burke  has  said 
that  when  he  appeared  before  Parliament  to  be  examined 
as  to  the  condition  of  things  in  America,  it  was  like  a  lot 
of  schoolboys  interrogating  the  master. 
With  the  voice  and  tongue  of  a  prophet,  Franklin  foretold 
the  English  people  what  the  outcome  of  their  treatment  of 
America  would  be.  Pitt  and  a  few  others  knew  the  greatness 
of  Franklin,  and  saw  that  he  was  right,  but  the  rest  smiled 
in  derision  jfc  jt 

He  sailed  for  home  in  Seventeen  Hundred  Seventy-five, 
and  urged  the  Continental  Congress  to  issue  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  of  which  he  became  a  signer.  Then  the 
war  came,  and  had  not  Franklin  gone  to  Paris  and  made 
an  ally  of  France,  and  borrowed  money,  the  Continental 
Army  could  not  have  been  maintained  in  the  field  jt  He 
remained  in  France  for  nine  years,  and  was  the  pride  and 
pet  of  the  people.  His  sound  sense,  his  good  humor,  his 


52 BENJAMIN     FRANKLIN 

distinguished  personality,  gave  him  the  freedom  of  society 
everywhere.  He  had  the  ability  to  adapt  himself  to  conditions, 
and  was  everywhere  at  home. 

Once,  he  attended  a  memorable  banquet  in  Paris  shortly 
after  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War.  Among  the  speakers 
was  the  English  Ambassador,  who  responded  to  the  toast, 
"Great  Britain."  &  The  Ambassador  dwelt  at  length  on 
England's  greatness,  and  likened  her  to  the  sun  that  sheds 
its  beneficent  rays  on  all.  The  next  toast  was  "America," 
and  Franklin  was  called  upon  to  respond.  He  began  very 
modestly  by  saying :  "The  Republic  is  too  young  to  be  spoken 
of  in  terms  of  praise;  her  career  is  yet  to  come,  and  so, 
instead  of  America,  I  will  name  you  a  man,  George  Washing 
ton — the  Joshua  who  successfully  commanded  the  sun  to 
stand  still."  The  Frenchmen  at  the  board  forgot  the  courtesy 
due  their  English  guest,  and  laughed  needlessly  loud. 
Franklin  was  regarded  in  Paris  as  the  man  who  had  both 
planned  the  War  of  the  Revolution,  and  fought  it.  They  said, 
"He  despoiled  the  thunderbolt  of  its  danger,  and  snatched 
sovereignty  out  of  the  hand  of  King  George  of  England." 
No  doubt  that  his  ovation  was  largely  owing  to  the  fact  that 
he  was  supposed  to  have  plucked  whole  handfuls  of  feathers 
from  England's  glory,  and  surely  they  were  pretty  nearly  right. 
<J  In  point  of  all-round  development,  Franklin  must  stand  as 
the  foremost  American.  The  one  intent  of  his  mind  was  to 
purify  his  own  spirit,  to  develop  his  intellect  on  every  side, 
and  make  his  body  the  servant  of  his  soul.  His  passion  was 
to  acquire  knowledge,  and  the  desire  of  his  heart  was  to 
communicate  it. 


BENJAMIN     FRANKLIN 53 

We  know  of  no  man  who  ever  lived  a  fuller  life,  a  happier 
life,  a  life  more  useful  to  other  men,  than  Benjamin  Franklin. 
For  forty-two  years  he  gave  the  constant  efforts  of  his  life 
to  his  country,  and  during  all  that  time  no  taint  of  a  selfish 
action  can  be  laid  to  his  charge.  Almost  his  last  public  act 
was  to  petition  Congress  to  pass  an  act  for  the  abolition  of 
slavery.  He  died  in  Seventeen  Hundred  Ninety,  and  as  you 
walk  up  Arch  Street,  Philadelphia,  only  a  few  squares  from 
the  spot  where  stood  his  printing-shop,  you  can  see  the 
place  where  he  sleeps. 

The  following  epitaph,  written  by  himself,  however,  does 
not  appear  on  the  simple  monument  that  marks  his  grave : 

The  Body 

of 

Benjamin  Franklin,  Printer, 
(Like  the  cover  of  an  old  book, 

Its  contents  torn  out, 
And  stripped  of  its  lettering  and  gilding,) 

Lies  here  food  for  worms. 

Yet  the  work  itself  shall  not  be  lost, 

For  it  will  (as  he  believes)  appear  once 

more 
In  a  new 

And  more  beautiful  Edition 
Corrected  and  Amended 

By 
The  Author. 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 


ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 


THE  objects  to  be  attained  are :  To  justify  and  preserve 
the  confidence  of  the  most  enlightened  friends  of  good 
government;  to  promote  the  increasing  respectability  of 
the  American  name;  to  answer  the  calls  of  justice;  to 
restore  landed  property  to  its  due  value;  to  furnish  new 
sources  both  to  agriculture  and  to  commerce;  to  cement 
more  closely  the  union  of  the  States ;  to  add  to  their  secur 
ity  against  foreign  attack ;  to  establish  public  order  on  the 
basis  of  an  upright  and  liberal  policy:  these  are  the  great 
and  invaluable  ends  to  be  secured  by  a  proper  and  adequate 
provision,  at  the  present  period,  for  the  support  of  public 
credit. — Report  to  Congress. 


ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 


i  £  do  not  know  the  name  of  the  mother  of 
Alexander  Hamilton :  we  do  not  know  the 
given  name  of  his  father.  But  from  letters, 
a  diary  and  pieced-out  reports,  allowing 
fancy  to  bridge  from  fact  to  fact,  we  get 
a  patchwork  history  of  the  events  preceding 
the  birth  of  this  wonderful  man. 
Every  strong  man  has  had  a  splendid 
mother.  Hamilton's  mother  was  a  woman 
of  wit,  beauty  and  education.  While  very 
young,  through  the  machinations  of  her 
elders,  she  had  been  married  to  a  man 
much  older  than  herself — rich,  wilful  and 
dissipated.  The  man's  name  was  Lavine, 
but  his  first  name  we  do  not  know,  so 
hidden  were  the  times  in  a  maze  of  obscu 
rity.  The  young  wife  very  soon  discovered 
the  depravity  of  this  man  whom  she  had 
vowed  to  love  and  obey;  divorce  was 
impossible;  and  rather  than  endure  a 
lifelong  existence  of  legalized  shame,  she 
packed  up  her  scanty  effects  and  sought 
to  hide  herself  from  society  and  kinsmen 
by  going  to  the  West  Indies. 
There  she  hoped  to  find  employment  as 
a  governess  in  the  family  of  one  of  the 
rich  planters;  or  if  this  plan  were  not 
successful  she  would  start  a  school  on 
her  own  account,  and  thus  benefit  her 


60 ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

kind  and  make  for  herself  an  honorable  living.  Arriving 
at  the  island  of  Nevis,  she  found  that  the  natives  did  not 
especially  desire  education,  certainly  not  enough  to  pay  for 
it,  and  there  was  no  family  requiring  a  governess.  But  a 
certain  Scotch  planter  by  the  name  of  Hamilton,  who  was 
consulted,  thought  in  time  that  a  school  could  be  built  up, 
and  he  offered  to  meet  the  expense  of  it  until  such  a  time 
as  it  could  be  put  on  a  paying  basis.  Unmarried  women  who 
accept  friendly  loans  from  men  stand  in  dangerous  places. 
With  all  good  women,  heart-whole  gratitude  and  a  friendship 
that  seems  unselfish  ripen  easily  into  love.  They  did  so  here. 
Perhaps,  in  a  warm,  ardent  temperament,  sore  grief  and 
biting  disappointment  and  crouching  want  obscure  the 
judgment  and  give  a  show  of  reason  to  actions  that  a  colder 
intellect  would  disapprove. 

On  the  frontiers  of  civilization  man  is  greater  than  law — 
all  ceremonies  are  looked  upon  lightly.  In  a  few  months 
Mrs.  Lavine  was  called  by  the  little  world  of  Nevis,  Mrs. 
Hamilton,  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hamilton  regarded  themselves 
as  man  and  wife. 

The  planter  Hamilton  was  a  hard-headed,  busy  individual, 
who  was  quite  unable  to  sympathize  with  his  wife's  finer 
aspirations.  Her  first  husband  had  been  clever  and  dissipated ; 
this  one  was  worthy  and  dull.  And  thus  deprived  of  congenial 
friendships,  without  books  or  art  or  that  social  home  life 
which  goes  to  make  up  a  woman's  world,  and  longing  for 
the  safety  of  close  sympathy  and  tender  love,  with  no  one 
on  whom  her  intellect  could  strike  a  spark,  she  keenly  felt 
the  bitterness  of  exile. 


ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 61 

In  a  city  where  society  ebbs  and  flows,  an  intellectual  woman 
married  to  a  commerce-grubbing  man  is  not  especially  to 
be  pitied.  She  can  find  intellectual  affinities  that  will  ease 
the  irksomeness  of  her  situation.  But  to  be  cast  on  a  desert 
isle  with  a  being,  no  matter  how  good,  who  is  incapable  of 
feeling  with  you  the  eternal  mystery  of  the  encircling  tides ; 
who  can  only  stare  when  you  speak  of  the  moaning  lullaby 
of  the  restless  sea ;  who  knows  not  the  glory  of  the  sunrise, 
and  feels  no  thrill  when  the  breakers  dash  themselves  into 
foam,  or  the  moonlight  dances  on  the  phosphorescent  waves 
— ah,  that  is  indeed  exile !  Loneliness  is  not  in  being  alone, 
for  then  ministering  spirits  come  to  soothe  and  bless — loneli 
ness  is  to  endure  the  presence  of  one  who  does  not  under 
stand  «jt  jt 

And  so  this  finely  organized,  receptive,  aspiring  woman, 
through  the  exercise  of  a  will  that  seemed  masculine  in 
its  strength,  found  her  feet  mired  in  quicksand.  She  struggled 
to  free  herself,  and  every  effort  only  sank  her  deeper.  The 
relentless  environment  only  held  her  with  firmer  clutch. 
tj  She  thirsted  for  knowledge,  for  sweet  music,  for  beauty, 
for  sympathy,  for  attainment.  She  had  a  heart-hunger  that 
none  about  her  understood.  She  strove  for  better  things. 
She  prayed  to  God,  but  the  heavens  were  as  brass ;  she  cried 
aloud,  and  the  only  answer  was  the  throbbing  of  her  restless 
heart  Jt  «jt 

In  this  condition,  a  son  was  born  to  her.  They  called  his 
name  Alexander  Hamilton.  This  child  was  heir  to  all  his 
mother's  splendid  ambitions.  Her  lack  of  opportunity  was 
his  blessing;  for  the  stifled  aspirations  of  her  soul  charged 


62 ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

his  being  with  a  strong  man's  desires,  and  all  the  mother's 
silken,  unswerving  will  was  woven  through  his  nature.  He 
was  to  surmount  obstacles  that  she  could  not  overcome, 
and  to  tread  under  his  feet  difficulties  that  to  her  were 
invincible  jt  & 

The  prayer  of  her  heart  was  answered,  but  not  in  the  way 
she  expected.  God  listened  to  her  after  all ;  for  every  earnest 
prayer  has  its  answer,  and  not  a  sincere  desire  of  the  heart 
but  somewhere  will  find  its  gratification. 
But  earth's  buffets  were  too  severe  for  the  brave  young 
woman;  the  forces  in  league  against  her  were  more  than 
she  could  withstand,  and  before  her  boy  was  out  of  baby 
dresses  she  gave  up  the  struggle,  and  went  to  her  long  rest, 
soothed  only  by  the  thought  that,  although  she  had  sorely 
blundered,  she  yet  had  done  her  work  as  best  she  could. 


ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 63 

KT  his  mother's  death,  we  find  Alexander  Hamilton 
taken  in  charge  by  certain  mystical  kinsmen.  Evidently 
he  was  well  cared  for,  as  he  grew  into  a  handsome, 
strong  lad — small,  to  be  sure,  but  finely  formed.  Where  he 
learned  to  read,  write  and  cipher  we  know  not ;  he  seems  to 
have  had  one  of  those  active,  alert  minds  that  can  acquire 
knowledge  on  a  barren  island. 

When  nine  years  old,  he  signed  his  name  as  witness  to  a 
deed.  The  signature  is  needlessly  large  and  bold,  and  written 
with  careful  schoolboy  pains,  but  the  writing  shows  the 
same  characteristics  that  mark  the  thousand  and  one  dis 
patches  which  we  have,  signed  at  bottom,  "G.  Washington." 
<]  At  twelve  years  of  age,  he  was  clerk  in  a  general  store — 
one  of  those  country  stores  where  everything  is  kept,  from 
ribbon  to  whisky.  There  were  other  helpers  in  the  store, 
full  grown;  but  when  the  proprietor  went  away  for  a  few 
days  into  the  interior,  the  dark,  slim  youngster  took  charge 
of  the  bookkeeping  and  the  cash;  and  made  such  shrewd 
exchanges  of  merchandise  for  produce  that  when  the  "Old 
Man"  returned,  the  lad  was  rewarded  by  two  pats  on  the 
head  and  a  raise  in  salary  of  one  shilling  a  week. 
About  this  time,  the  boy  was  also  showing  signs  of  literary 
skill  by  writing  sundry  poems  and  "compositions,"  and  one 
of  his  efforts  in  this  line  describing  a  tropical  hurricane  was 
published  in  a  London  paper.  This  opened  the  eyes  of  the 
mystical  kinsmen  to  the  fact  that  they  had  a  genius  among 
them,  and  the  elder  Hamilton  was  importuned  for  money 
to  send  the  boy  to  Boston  that  he  might  receive  a  proper 
education  and  come  back  and  own  the  store  and  be  a  magis- 


64 ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

trate  and  a  great  man.  No  doubt  the  lad  pressed  the  issue, 
too,  for  his  ambition  had  already  begun  to  ferment,  as  we 
find  him  writing  to  a  friend,  "I  '11  risk  my  life,  though  not 
my  character,  to  exalt  my  station." 
Most  great  things  in  America  have  to  take  their  rise  in 
Boston;  so  it  seems  meet  that  Alexander  Hamilton, aged 
fifteen,  a  British  subject,  should  first  set  foot  on  American 
soil  at  Long  Wharf,  Boston.  He  took  a  ferry  over  to  Cam- 
bridgeport  and  walked  through  the  woods  three  miles  to 
Harvard  College.  Possibly  he  did  not  remain  because  his 
training  in  a  bookish  way  had  not  been  sufficient  for  him 
to  enter,  and  possibly  he  did  not  like  the  Puritanic  visage 
of  the  old  professor  who  greeted  him  on  the  threshold  of 
Massachusetts  Hall ;  at  any  rate,  he  soon  made  his  way  to 
New  Haven.  Yale  suited  him  no  better,  and  he  took  a  boat 
for  New  York. 

He  had  letters  to  several  good  clergymen  in  New  York,  and 
they  proved  wise  and  good  counselors.  The  boy  was  advised 
to  take  a  course  at  the  Grammar  School  at  Elizabethtown, 
New  Jersey. 

There  he  remained  a  year,  applying  himself  most  vigorously, 
and  the  next  Fall  he  knocked  at  the  gate  of  King's  College. 
It  is  called  Columbia  now,  because  kings  in  America  went 
out  of  fashion,  and  all  honors  formerly  paid  to  the  king 
were  turned  over  to  Miss  Columbia,  Goddess  of  Freedom  jt 
King's  College  swung  wide  its  doors  for  the  swarthy  little 
West  Indian.  He  was  allowed  to  choose  his  own  course,  and 
every  advantage  of  the  university  was  offered  him.  In  a 
university,  you  get  just  all  you  are  able  to  hold — it  depends 


ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 65 

upon  yourself — and  at  the  last  all  men  who  are  made  at 
all  are  self-made. 

Hamilton  improved  each  passing  moment  as  it  flew;  with 
the  help  of  a  tutor  he  threw  himself  into  his  work,  gathering 
up  knowledge  with  the  quick  perception  and  eager  alertness 
of  one  from  whom  the  good  things  of  earth  have  been  with 
held  Jt,  ji, 

Yet  he  lived  well  and  spent  his  money  as  if  there  were  plenty 
more  where  it  came  from ;  but  he  was  never  dissipated  nor 
wasteful  jt  jfc 

This  was  in  the  year  Seventeen  Hundred  Seventy-four,  and 
the  Colonies  were  in  a  state  of  political  excitement.  Young 
Hamilton's  sympathies  were  all  with  the  mother  country. 
He  looked  upon  the  Americans,  for  the  most  part,  as  a  rude, 
crude  and  barbaric  people,  who  should  be  very  grateful  for 
the  protection  of  such  an  all-powerful  country  as  Eng 
land  jt  At  his  boarding-house  and  at  school,  he  argued 
the  question  hotly,  defending  England's  right  to  tax  her 
dependencies. 

One  fine  day,  one  of  his  schoolmates  put  the  question  to 
him  flatly :  "In  case  of  war  on  which  side  will  you  fight?  " 
Hamilton  answered,  "On  the  side  of  England." 
But  by  the  next  day  he  had  reasoned  it  out  that  if  England 
succeeded  in  suppressing  the  rising  insurrection  she  would 
take  all  credit  to  herself ;  and  if  the  Colonies  succeeded  there 
would  be  honors  for  those  who  did  the  work.  Suddenly  it 
came  over  him  that  there  was  such  a  thing  as  "the  divine 
right  of  insurrection,"  and  that  there  was  no  reason  why 
men  living  in  America  should  be  taxed  to  support  a  govern- 


66 ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

ment  across  the  sea.  The  wealth  produced  in  America  should 
be  used  to  develop  America. 

He  was  young,  and  burning  with  a  lofty  ambition.  He  knew, 
and  had  known  all  along,  that  he  would  some  day  be  great 
and  famous  and  powerful — here  was  the  opportunity. 
And  so,  next  day,  he  announced  at  the  boarding-house 
that  the  eloquence  and  logic  of  his  messmates  were  too 
powerful  to  resist — he  believed  the  Colonies  and  the  mess 
mates  were  in  the  right.  Then  several  bottles  were  brought 
in,  and  success  was  drunk  to  all  men  who  strove  for  liberty. 
Cj  Patriotic  sentiment  is  at  the  last  self-interest ;  in  fact, 
Herbert  Spencer  declares  that  there  is  no  sane  thought  or 
rational  act  but  has  its  root  in  egoism. 
Shortly  after  the  young  man's  conversion,  there  was  a 
mass-meeting  held  in  "The  Fields,"  which  meant  the  wilds 
of  what  is  now  the  region  of  Twenty-third  Street.  Young 
Hamilton  stood  in  the  crowd  and  heard  the  various  speakers 
plead  the  cause  of  the  Colonies,  and  urge  that  New  York 
should  stand  firm  with  Massachusetts  against  the  further 
encroachments  and  persecutions  of  England.  There  were 
many  Tories  in  the  crowd,  for  New  York  was  with  King 
George  as  against  Massachusetts,  and  these  Tories  asked 
the  speakers  embarrassing  questions  that  the  speakers  failed 
to  answer.  And  all  the  time  young  Hamilton  found  himself 
nearer  and  nearer  the  platform.  Finally,  he  undertook  to 
reply  to  a  talkative  Tory,  and  some  one  shouted,  "Give  him 
the  platform — the  platform  1  "  and  in  a  moment  this  seven 
teen-year-old  boy  found  himself  facing  two  thousand  people. 
There  was  hesitation  and  embarrassment,  but  the  shouts  of 


ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 67 

one  of  his  college  chums,  "Give  it  to  'em!  Give  it  to  'eml  " 
filled  in  an  awkward  instant,  and  he  began  to  speak.  There 
was  logic  and  lucidity  of  expression,  and  as  he  talked  the 
air  became  charged  with  reasons,  and  all  he  had  to  do  was 
to  reach  up  and  seize  them. 

His  strong  and  passionate  nature  gave  gravity  to  his  sen 
tences,  and  every  quibbling  objector  found  himself  answered, 
and  more  than  answered,  and  the  speakers  who  were  to 
present  the  case  found  this  stripling  doing  the  work  so  much 
better  than  they  could,  that  they  urged  him  on  with  applause 
and  loud  cries  of  "Bravo !  Bravo  I  " 
Immediately  at  the  close  of  Hamilton's  speech,  the  chairman 
had  the  good  sense  to  declare  the  meeting  adjourned — thus 
shutting  off  all  reply,  as  well  as  closing  the  mouths  of  the 
minnow  orators  who  usually  pop  up  to  neutralize  the 
impression  that  the  strong  man  has  made. 
Hamilton's  speech  was  the  talk  of  the  town.  The  leading 
Whigs  sought  him  out  and  begged  that  he  would  write  down 
his  address  so  that  they  could  print  it  as  a  pamphlet  in  reply 
to  the  Tory  pamphleteers  who  were  vigorously  circulating 
their  wares.  The  pens  of  ready  writers  were  scarce  in  those 
days:  men  could  argue,  but  to  present  a  forcible  written 
brief  was  another  thing.  So  young  Hamilton  put  his  reasons 
on  paper,  and  their  success  surprised  the  boys  at  the  boarding- 
house,  and  the  college  chums  and  the  professors,  and  proba 
bly  himself  as  well.  His  name  was  on  the  lips  of  all  Whigdom, 
and  the  Tories  sent  messengers  to  buy  him  off. 
But  Congress  was  willing  to  pay  its  defenders,  and  money 
came  from  somewhere — not  much,  but  all  the  young  man 


68 ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

needed.  College  was  dropped;  the  political  pot  boiled;  and 
the  study  of  history,  economics  and  statecraft  filled  the 
daylight  hours  to  the  brim  and  often  ran  over  into  the  night. 
<I  The  winter  of  Seventeen  Hundred  Seventy-five  passed 
away;  the  plot  thickened.  New  York  had  reluctantly  con 
sented  to  be  represented  in  Congress  and  agreed  grumpily 
to  join  hands  with  the  Colonies.  The  redcoats  had  marched 
out  to  Concord — and  back ;  and  the  embattled  farmers  had 
stood  and  fired  the  shot  "heard  'round  the  world." 
Hamilton  was  working  hard  to  bring  New  York  over  to  an 
understanding  that  she  must  stand  firm  against  English 
rule.  He  organized  meetings,  gave  addresses,  wrote  letters, 
newspaper  articles  and  pamphlets.  Then  he  joined  a  military 
company  and  was  perfecting  himself  in  the  science  of  war. 
t|  There  were  frequent  outbreaks  between  Tory  mobs  and 
Whigs,  and  the  breaking  up  of  your  opponents'  meeting 
was  looked  upon  as  a  pleasant  pastime. 
Then  came  the  British  ship  "Asia"  and  opened  fire  on  the 
town.  This  no  doubt  made  Whigs  of  a  good  many  Tories. 
Whig  sentiment  was  on  the  increase ;  gangs  of  men  marched 
through  the  streets  and  the  king's  stores  were  broken  into, 
and  prominent  Royalists  found  their  houses  being  threatened. 
q  Doctor  Cooper,  President  of  King's  College,  had  been  very 
pronounced  in  his  rebukes  to  Congress  and  the  Colonies,  and 
a  mob  made  its  way  to  his  house.  Arriving  there,  Hamilton 
and  his  chum  Troup  were  found  on  the  steps,  determined 
to  protect  the  place.  Hamilton  stepped  forward,  and  in  a 
strong  speech  urged  that  Doctor  Cooper  had  merely  expressed 
his  own  private  views,  which  he  had  a  right  to  do,  and  the 


ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 69 

house  must  not  on  any  account  be  molested.  While  the  parley 
was  in  progress,  old  Doctor  Cooper  himself  appeared  at  one 
of  the  upper  windows  and  excitedly  cautioned  the  crowd 
not  to  listen  to  that  blatant  young  rapscallion  Hamilton, 
as  he  was  a  rogue  and  a  varlet  and  a  vagrom.  The  good 
Doctor  then  slammed  the  window  and  escaped  by  the  back 
way  &  jt 

His  remarks  raised  a  laugh  in  which  even  young  Hamilton 
joined,  but  his  mistake  was  very  natural  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  he  only  knew  that  Hamilton  had  deserted  the  college 
and  espoused  the  devil's  cause;  and  not  having  heard  his 
remarks,  but  seeing  him  standing  on  his  steps  haranguing 
a  crowd,  thought  surely  he  was  endeavoring  to  work  up 
mischief  against  his  old  preceptor,  who  had  once  plucked 
him  in  Greek. 

It  seems  to  have  been  the  intention  of  his  guardians  that 
the  limit  of  young  Hamilton's  stay  in  America  was  to  be 
two  years,  and  by  that  time  his  education  would  be  "com 
plete,"  and  he  would  return  to  the  West  Indies  and  surprise 
the  natives. 

But  his  father,  who  supplied  the  money,  and  the  mystical 
kinsmen  who  supplied  advice,  and  the  kind  friends  who 
had  given  him  letters  to  the  Presbyterian  clergymen  at 
New  York  and  Princeton,  had  figured  without  their  host. 
Young  Hamilton  knew  all  that  Nevis  had  in  store  for  him : 
he  knew  its  littleness,  its  contumely  and  disgrace,  and  in 
the  secret  recesses  of  his  own  strong  heart  he  had  slipped  the 
cable  that  held  him  to  the  past.  No  more  remittances  from 
home;  no  more  solicitous  advice;  no  more  kindly,  loving 


TO ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

letters — the  past  was  dead.  For  England  he  once  had  had 
an  idolatrous  regard ;  to  him  she  had  once  been  the  protector 
of  his  native  land,  the  empress  of  the  seas,  the  enlightener 
of  mankind;  but  henceforth  he  was  an  American. 
He  was  to  fight  America's  battles,  to  share  in  her  victory, 
to  help  make  of  her  a  great  Nation,  and  to  weave  his  name 
into  the  web  of  her  history  so  that  as  long  as  the  United 
States  of  America  shall  be  remembered,  so  long  also 
shall  be  remembered  the  name  of  Alexander  Hamilton. 


ALEXANDER    HAMILTON  71 


m 


'HAT  General  Washington  called  his  "family" 
usually  consisted  of  sixteen  men.  These  were  his 
aides,  and  more  than  that,  his  counselors  and 
friends.  In  Washington's  frequent  use  of  that  expression, 
"my  family,"  there  is  a  touch  of  affection  that  we  do  not 
expect  to  find  in  the  tents  of  war.  In  rank,  the  staff  ran  the 
gamut  from  captain  to  general.  Each  man  had  his  appointed 
work  and  made  a  daily  report  to  his  chief.  When  not  in  actual 
action,  the  family  dined  together  daily,  and  the  affair  was 
conducted  with  considerable  ceremony.  Washington  sat  at 
the  head  of  the  table,  large,  handsome  and  dignified.  At 
his  right  hand  was  seated  the  guest  of  honor,  and  there 
were  usually  several  invited  friends.  At  his  left  sat  Alexander 
Hamilton,  ready  with  quick  pen  to  record  the  orders  of  his 
chief  «jt  jt 

And  methinks  it  would  have  been  quite  worth  while  to  have 
had  a  place  at  that  board,  and  looked  down  the  table  at 
"the  strong,  fine  face,  tinged  with  melancholy,"  of  Wash 
ington  ;  and  the  cheery,  youthful  faces  of  Lawrence,  Tilgh- 
man,  Lee,  Aaron  Burr,  Alexander  Hamilton  and  the  others 
of  that  brave  and  handsome  company.  Well  might  they 
have  called  Washington  father,  for  this  he  was  in  spirit  to 
them  all — grave,  gentle,  courteous  and  magnanimous,  yet 
exacting  strict  and  instant  obedience  from  all;  and  well, 
too,  may  we  imagine  that  this  obedience  was  freely  and 
cheerfully  given. 

Hamilton  became  one  of  Washington's  family  on  March 
First,  Seventeen  Hundred  Seventy-seven,  with  the  rank  of 
lieutenant-colonel.  He  was  barely  twenty  years  of  age; 


72 ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

Washington  was  forty-seven,  and  the  average  age  of  the 
family,  omitting  its  head,  was  twenty-five.  All  had  been 
selected  on  account  of  superior  intelligence  and  a  record 
of  dashing  courage.  When  Hamilton  took  his  place  at  the 
board,  he  was  the  youngest  member,  save  one.  In  point  of 
literary  talent,  he  stood  among  the  very  foremost  in  the 
country,  for  then  there  was  no  literature  in  America  save 
the  literature  of  politics;  and  as  an  officer,  he  had  shown 
rare  skill  and  bravery. 

And  yet,  such  was  Hamilton's  ambition  and  confidence  in 
himself,  that  he  hesitated  to  accept  the  position,  and  con 
sidered  it  an  act  of  sacrifice  to  do  so  Jt  But  having  once 
accepted,  he  threw  himself  into  the  work  and  became  Wash 
ington's  most  intimate  and  valued  assistant.  Washington's 
correspondence  with  his  generals,  with  Congress,  and  the 
written  decisions  demanded  daily  on  hundreds  of  minor 
questions,  mostly  devolved  on  Hamilton,  for  work  gravitates 
to  him  who  can  do  it  best.  A  simple  "Yes,"  "No  "  or  "Per 
haps  "  from  the  chief  must  be  elaborated  into  a  diplomatic 
letter,  conveying  just  the  right  shade  of  meaning,  all  with 
its  proper  emphasis  and  show  of  dignity  and  respect.  Thou 
sands  of  these  dispatches  can  now  be  seen  at  the  Capitol; 
and  the  ease,  grace,  directness  and  insight  shown  in  them 
are  remarkable.  There  is  no  muddy  rhetoric  or  befuddled 
clauses.  They  were  written  by  one  with  a  clear  understanding, 
who  was  intent  that  the  person  addressed  should  understand, 
too.  Many  of  these  dispatches  and  proclamations  were  merely 
signed  by  Washington,  but  a  few  reveal  interlined  sentences 
and  an  occasional  word  changed  in  Washington's  hand, 


ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 73 

thus  showing  that  all  was  closely  scrutinized  and  digested. 
Cj  As  a  member  of  Washington's  staff,  Hamilton  did  not 
have  the  independent  command  that  he  so  much  desired; 
but  he  endured  that  heroic  Winter  at  Valley  Forge,  was 
present  at  all  the  important  battles,  took  an  active  part  in 
most  of  them,  and  always  gained  honor  and  distinction. 
Cl  As  an  aide  to  Washington,  Hamilton's  most  important 
mission  was  when  he  was  sent  to  General  Gates  to  secure 
reinforcements  for  the  Southern  army.  Gates  had  defeated 
Burgoyne  and  won  a  full  dozen  stern  victories  in  the  North. 
In  the  meantime,  Washington  had  done  nothing  but  make 
a  few  brave  retreats.  Gates'  army  was  made  up  of  hardy 
and  seasoned  soldiers,  who  had  met  the  enemy  and  defeated 
him  over  and  over  again.  The  flush  of  success  was  on  their 
banners;  and  Washington  knew  that  if  a  few  thousand  of 
those  rugged  veterans  could  be  secured  to  reinforce  his  own 
well-nigh  discouraged  troops,  victory  would  also  perch  upon 
the  banners  of  the  South. 

As  a  superior  officer  he  had  the  right  to  demand  these  troops ; 
but  to  reduce  the  force  of  a  general  who  is  making  an  excel 
lent  success  is  not  the  common  rule  of  war.  The  country 
looked  upon  Gates  as  its  savior,  and  Gates  was  feeling  a 
little  that  way  himself.  Gates  had  but  to  demand  it,  and  the 
position  of  Commander-in-Chief  would  go  to  him.  Wash 
ington  thoroughly  realized  this,  and  therefore  hesitated  about 
issuing  an  order  requesting  a  part  of  Gates'  force.  To  secure 
these  troops  as  if  the  suggestion  came  from  Gates  was  a 
most  delicate  commission.  Alexander  Hamilton  was  dis 
patched  to  Gates'  headquarters,  armed,  as  a  last  resort, 


74 ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

with  a  curt  military  order  to  the  effect  that  he  should  turn 
over  a  portion  of  his  army  to  Washington.  Hamilton's  orders 
were :  "Bring  the  troops,  but  do  not  deliver  this  order  unless 
you  are  obliged  to."  CJ  Hamilton  brought  the  troops,  and 
returned  the  order  with  seal  intact. 

The  act  of  his  sudden  breaking  with  Washington  has  been 
much  exaggerated.  In  fact,  it  was  not  a  sudden  act  at  all, 
for  it  had  been  premeditated  for  some  months.  There  was 
a  woman  in  the  case.  Hamilton  had  done  more  than  conquer 
General  Gates  on  that  Northern  trip :  at  Albany,  he  had  met 
Elizabeth,  daughter  of  General  Schuyler,  and  won  her  after 
what  has  been  spoken  of  as  "a  short  and  sharp  skirmish." 
Both  Alexander  and  Elizabeth  regarded  "a  clerkship"  as 
quite  too  limited  a  career  for  one  so  gifted;  they  felt  that 
nothing  less  than  commander  of  a  division  would  answer. 
How  to  break  loose — that  was  the  question. 
And  when  Washington  met  him  at  the  head  of  the  stairs 
of  the  New  Windsor  Hotel  and  sharply  chided  him  for  being 
late,  the  young  man  embraced  the  opportunity  and  said, 
"Sir,  since  you  think  I  have  been  remiss,  we  part." 
It  was  the  act  of  a  boy ;  and  the  figure  of  this  boy,  five  feet 
five  inches  high,  weight  one  hundred  twenty,  aged  twenty- 
four,  talking  back  to  his  chief,  six  feet  three,  weight  two 
hundred,  aged  fifty,  has  its  comic  side.  Military  rule  demands 
that  every  one  shall  be  on  time,  and  Washington's  rebuke 
was  proper  and  right.  Further  than  this,  one  feels  that  if 
he  had  followed  up  his  rebuke  by  boxing  the  young  man's 
ears  for  "sassing  back,"  he  would  still  not  have  been  outside 
the  lines  of  duty. 


ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 


75 


But  an  hour  afterwards  we  find  Washington  sending  for 
the  youth  and  endeavoring  to  mend  the  break.  And  although 
Hamilton  proudly  repelled  his  advances,  Washington  forgave 
all  and  generously  did  all  he  could  to  advance  the  young 
man's  interests.  Washington's  magnanimity  was  absolutely 
without  flaw,  but  bis  attitude  towards  Hamilton  has  a  more 
suggestive  meaning  when  we  consider  that  it  was  a  testi 
monial  of  the  high  estimate  he  placed  on  Hamilton's  ability. 
Cj[  At  Yorktown,  Washington  gave  Hamilton  the  perilous 
privilege  of  leading  the  assault.  Hamilton  did  his  work  well, 
rushing  with  fiery  impetuosity  upon  the  fort— carried  all 
before  him,  and  in  ten  minutes  had  planted  the  Stars  and 
Stripes  on  the  ramparts  of  the  enemy. 
It  was  a  fine  and  fitting  close  to  his  glorious  military  career. 


76  ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 


Washington  became  President,  the  most 
important  office  to  be  filled  was  that  of  manager 
of  the  exchequer.  In  fact,  all  there  was  of  it  was 
the  office  —  there  was  no  treasury,  no  mint,  no  fixed  revenue, 
no  credit;  but  there  were  debts  —  foreign  and  domestic  — 
and  clamoring  creditors  by  the  thousand.  The  debts  consisted 
of  what  was  then  the  vast  sum  of  eighty  million  dollars.  The 
treasury  was  empty.  Washington  had  many  advisers  who 
argued  that  the  Nation  could  never  live  under  such  a  weight 
of  debt  —  the  only  way  was  flatly  and  frankly  to  repudiate  — 
wipe  the  slate  clean  —  and  begin  afresh. 
This  was  what  the  country  expected  would  be  done  ;  and  so 
low  was  the  hope  of  payment  that  creditors  could  be  found 
who  were  willing  to  compromise  their  claims  for  ten  cents 
on  the  dollar.  Robert  Morris,  who  had  managed  the  finances 
during  the  period  of  the  Confederation,  utterly  refused  to 
attempt  the  task  again,  but  he  named  a  man  who,  he  said, 
could  bring  order  out  of  chaos,  if  any  living  man  could.  That 
man  was  Alexander  Hamilton.  Washington  appealed  to 
Hamilton,  offering  him  the  position  of  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury.  Hamilton,  aged  thirty-two,  gave  up  his  law 
practise,  which  was  yielding  him  ten  thousand  a  year,  to 
accept  this  office  which  paid  three  thousand  five  hundred. 
Before  the  British  cannon,  Washington  did  not  lose  heart, 
but  to  face  the  angry  mob  of  creditors  waving  white  paper 
claims  made  him  quake  ;  but  with  Hamilton's  presence  his 
courage  came  back. 

The  first  thing  that  Hamilton  decided  upon  was  that  there 
should  be  no  repudiation  —  no  offer  of  compromise  would 


ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 77 

be  considered — every  man  should  be  paid  in  full.  And  further 
than  this,  the  general  government  would  assume  the  entire 
war  debt  of  each  individual  State.  Washington  concurred 
with  Hamilton  on  these  points,  but  he  could  make  neither 
oral  nor  written  argument  in  a  way  that  would  convince 
others ;  so  this  task  was  left  to  Hamilton.  Hamilton  appeared 
before  Congress  and  explained  his  plans — explained  them  so 
lucidly  and  with  such  force  and  precision  that  he  made  an 
indelible  impression.  There  were  grumblers  and  complainers, 
but  these  did  not  and  could  not  reply  to  Hamilton,  for  he 
saw  all  over  and  around  the  subject,  and  they  saw  it  only  at 
an  angle.  Hamilton  had  studied  the  history  of  finance,  and 
knew  the  financial  schemes  of  every  country.  No  question 
of  statecraft  could  be  asked  him  for  which  he  did  not  have 
a  reply  ready.  He  knew  the  science  of  government  as  no 
other  man  in  America  then  did,  and  recognizing  this,  Con 
gress  asked  him  to  prepare  reports  on  the  collection  of 
revenue,  the  coasting  trade,  the  effects  of  a  tariff,  ship 
building,  post-office  extension,  and  also  a  scheme  for  a 
judicial  system.  When  in  doubt  they  asked  Hamilton. 
And  all  the  time  Hamilton  was  working  at  this  bewildering 
maze  of  detail,  he  was  evolving  that  financial  policy,  broad, 
comprehensive  and  minute,  which  endures  even  to  this  day, 
even  to  the  various  forms  of  accounts  that  are  now  kept 
at  the  Treasury  Department  at  Washington. 
His  insistence  that  to  preserve  the  credit  of  a  nation  every 
debt  must  be  paid,  is  an  idea  that  no  statesman  now  dare 
question.  The  entire  aim  and  intent  of  his  policy  was  high, 
open  and  frank  honesty.  The  people  should  be  made  to  feel 


78 ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

an  absolute  security  in  their  government,  and  this  being  so, 
all  forms  of  industry  would  prosper,  "and  the  prosperity 
of  the  people  is  the  prosperity  of  the  Nation."  To  such  a 
degree  of  confidence  did  Hamilton  raise  the  public  credit 
that  in  a  very  short  tune  the  government  found  no  trouble  in 
borrowing  all  the  money  it  needed  at  four  per  cent ;  and  yet 
this  was  done  hi  face  of  the  fact  that  its  debt  had  increased. 
CJ  Just  here  was  where  his  policy  invited  its  strongest  and 
most  bitter  attack.  For  there  are  men  today  who  can  not 
comprehend  that  a  public  debt  is  a  public  blessing,  and  that 
all  liabilities  have  a  strict  and  undivorceable  relationship 
to  assets.  Alexander  Hamilton  was  a  leader  of  men.  He  could 
do  the  thinking  of  his  time  and  map  out  a  policy, '  'arranging 
every  detail  for  a  kingdom."  He  has  been  likened  to  Napoleon 
in  his  ability  to  plan  and  execute  with  rapid  and  marvelous 
precision,  and  surely  the  similarity  is  striking. 
But  he  was  not  an  adept  in  the  difficult  and  delicate  art  of 
diplomacy — he  could  not  wait.  He  demanded  instant  obedi 
ence,  and  lacked  all  of  that  large,  patient,  calm  magnanimity 
so  splendidly  shown  forth  since  by  Abraham  Lincoln.  Unlike 
Jefferson,  his  great  rival,  he  could  not  calmly  and  silently 
bide  his  time.  But  I  will  not  quarrel  with  a  man  because  he 
is  not  some  one  else. 

He  saw  things  clearly  at  a  glance;  he  knew  because  he 
knew ;  and  if  others  would  not  follow,  he  had  the  audacity 
to  push  on  alone.  This  recklessness  to  the  opinion  of  the 
slow  and  plodding,  this  indifference  to  the  dull,  gradually 
drew  upon  him  the  hatred  of  a  class. 
They  said  he  was  a  monarchist  at  heart  and  "such  men  are 


ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 


79 


dangerous."  The  country  became  divided  into  those  who 
were  with  Hamilton  and  those  who  were  against  him.  The 
very  transcendent  quality  of  his  genius  wove  the  net  that 
eventually  was  to  catch  his  feet  and  accomplish  his  ruin. 


8o ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

has  been  the  usual  practise  for  n«arly  a  hundred  years 
to  refer  to  Aaron  Burr  as  a  roue,  a  rogue  and  a  thorough 
villain,  who  took  the  life  of  a  gentle  and  innocent  man. 
I  have  no  apologies  to  make  for  Colonel  Burr ;  the  record 
of  his  life  lies  open  in  many  books,  and  I  would  neither 
conceal  nor  explain  away. 

If  I  should  attempt  to  describe  the  man  and  liken  him  to 
another,  that  man  would  be  Alexander  Hamilton. 
They  were  the  same  age  within  ten  months ;  they  were  the 
same  height  within  an  inch;  their  weight  was  the  same 
within  five  pounds,  and  in  temperament  and  disposition 
they  resembled  each  other  as  brothers  seldom  do.  Each 
was  passionate,  ambitious,  proud. 

In  the  drawing-room  where  one  of  these  men  chanced  to 
be,  there  was  room  for  no  one  else — such  was  the  vivacity, 
the  wit,  and  the  generous,  glowing  good-nature  shown. 
With  women,  the  manner  of  these  men  was  most  gentle 
and  courtly ;  and  the  low,  alluring  voice  of  each  was  music's 
honeyed  flattery  set  to  words. 

Both  were  much  under  the  average  height,  yet  the  carriage 
of  each  was  so  proud  and  imposing  that  everywhere  they 
went  men  made  way,  and  women  turned  and  stared. 
Both  were  public  speakers  and  lawyers  of  such  eminence 
that  they  took  their  pick  of  clients  and  charged  all  the  fee 
that  policy  would  allow  jt  In  debate,  there  was  a  wilful 
aggressiveness,  a  fiery  sureness,  a  lofty  certainty,  that  moved 
judges  and  juries  to  do  their  bidding.  Henry  Cabot  Lodge 
says  that  so  great  was  Hamilton's  renown  as  a  lawyer  that 
clients  flocked  to  him  because  the  belief  was  abroad  that  no 


ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 81 

judge  dare  decide  against  him.  With  Burr  it  was  the  same. 
CJ  Both  made  large  sums,  and  both  spent  them  all  as  fast  as 
made  jt  & 

In  point  of  classic  education,  Burr  had  the  advantage. 
He  was  the  grandson  of  the  Reverend  Jonathan  Edwards. 
In  his  strong  personal  magnetism,  and  keen,  many-sided 
intellect,  Aaron  Burr  strongly  resembled  the  gifted  Presby 
terian  divine  who  wrote  "Sinners  in  the  Hands  of  an  Angry 
God."  His  father  was  the  Reverend  Aaron  Burr,  President 
of  Princeton  College.  He  was  a  graduate  of  Princeton,  and, 
like  Hamilton,  always  had  the  ability  to  focus  his  mind  on 
the  subject  hi  hand,  and  wring  from  it  its  very  core.  Burr's 
reputation  as  to  his  susceptibility  to  women's  charms  is 
the  world's  common — very  common — property  jt  He  was 
unhappily  married;  his  wife  died  before  he  was  thirty; 
he  was  a  man  of  ardent  nature  and  stalked  through  the 
world  a  conquering  Don  Juan.  A  historian,  however,  records 
that  "his  alliances  were  only  with  women  who  were  deemed 
by  society  to  be  respectable.  Married  women,  unhappily 
mated,  knowing  his  reputation,  very  often  placed  themselves 
in  his  way,  going  to  him  for  advice,  as  moths  court  the  flame. 
Young,  tender  and  innocent  girls  had  no  charm  for  him." 
CJ  Hamilton  was  happily  married  to  a  woman  of  aristocratic 
family;  rich,  educated,  intellectual,  gentle,  and  worthy  of 
him  at  his  best.  They  had  a  family  of  eight  children.  Hamilton 
was  a  favorite  of  women  everywhere,  and  was  mixed  up  in 
various  scandalous  intrigues.  He  was  an  easy  mark  for  a 
designing  woman.  In  one  instance,  the  affair  was  seized 
upon  by  his  political  foes,  and  made  capital  of  to  his  sore 


82 ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

disadvantage.  Hamilton  met  the  issue  by  writing  a  pamphlet, 
laying  bare  the  entire  shameless  affair,  to  the  horror  of  his 
family  and  friends.  Copies  of  this  pamphlet  may  be  seen  in 
the  rooms  of  the  American  Historical  Society  at  New  York. 
Cf  Burr  had  been  Attorney-General  of  New  York  State  and 
also  United  States  Senator.  Each  man  had  served  on  Wash 
ington's  staff;  each  had  a  brilliant  military  record;  each 
had  acted  as  second  in  a  duel;  each  recognized  the  honor 
of  the  code. 

Stern  political  differences  arose,  not  so  much  through 
matters  of  opinion  and  conscience,  as  through  ambitious 
rivalry.  Neither  was  willing  the  other  should  rise,  yet  both 
thirsted  for  place  and  power.  Burr  ran  for  the  Presidency, 
and  was  sternly,  strongly,  bitterly  opposed  as  "a  dangerous 
man",  by  Hamilton. 

At  the  election  one  more  electoral  vote  would  have  given 
the  highest  office  of  the  people  to  Aaron  Burr ;  as  it  was  he 
tied  with  Jefferson.  The  matter  was  thrown  into  the  House 
of  Representatives,  and  Jefferson  was  given  the  office,  with 
Burr  as  Vice-President.  Burr  considered,  and  perhaps  rightly, 
that  were  it  not  for  Hamilton's  assertive  influence  he  would 
have  been  President  of  the  United  States. 
While  still  Vice-President,  Burr  sought  to  become  Governor 
of  New  York,  thinking  this  the  surest  road  to  receiving  the 
nomination  for  the  Presidency  at  the  next  election. 
Hamilton  openly  and  bitterly  opposed  him,  and  the  office 
went  to  another. 

Burr  considered,  and  rightly,  that  were  it  not  for  Hamilton's 
influence  he  would  have  been  Governor  of  New  York. 


ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 83 

Burr,  smarting  under  the  sting  of  this  continual  opposition 
by  a  man  who  himself  was  shelved  politically  through  his 
own  too  fiery  ambition,  sent  a  note  by  his  friend  Van  Ness 
to  Hamilton,  asking  whether  the  language  he  had  used 
concerning  him  ("a  dangerous  man")  referred  to  him 
politically  or  personally. 

Hamilton  replied  evasively,  saying  he  could  not  recall  all 
that  he  might  have  said  during  fifteen  years  of  public  life. 
"Especially,"  he  said  in  his  letter,  "it  can  not  be  reasonably 
expected  that  I  shall  enter  into  any  explanation  upon  a  basis 
so  vague  as  you  have  adopted.  I  trust  on  more  reflection  you 
will  see  the  matter  in  the  same  light.  If  not,  however,  I  only 
regret  the  circumstances,  and  must  abide  the  consequences." 
Cf  When  fighting  men  use  fighting  language  they  invite  a 
challenge.  Hamilton's  excessively  polite  regret  that  "he 
must  abide  the  consequences"  simply  meant  fight,  as  his 
language  had  for  a  space  of  five  years. 
A  challenge  was  sent  by  the  hand  of  Pendleton.  Hamilton 
accepted.  Being  the  challenged  man  (for  duelists  are  always 
polite),  he  was  given  the  choice  of  weapons.  He  chose  pistols 
at  ten  paces. 

At  seven  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  July  Eleventh,  Eighteen 
Hundred  Four,  the  participants  met  on  the  heights  of  Wee- 
hawken,  overlooking  New  York  Bay.  On  a  toss  Hamilton 
won  the  choice  of  position  and  his  second  also  won  the  right 
of  giving  the  word  to  fire. 

Each  man  removed  his  coat  and  cravat;  the  pistols  were 
loaded  in  their  presence.  As  Pendleton  handed  his  pistol  to 
Hamilton  he  asked,  "Shall  I  set  the  hair-trigger?"  "Not 


84 ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

this  time,"  replied  Hamilton.  With  pistols  primed  and  cocked, 

the  men  were  stationed  facing  each  other,  thirty  feet  apart. 

<I  Both  were  pale,  but  free  from  any  visible  nervousness  or 

excitement.  Neither  had  partaken  of  stimulants.  Each  was 

asked  if  he  had  anything  to  say,  or  if  he  knew  of  any  way 

by  which  the  affair  could  be  terminated  there  and  then. 

Each  answered  quietly  in  the  negative.  Pendleton,  standing 

fifteen  feet  to  the  right  of  his  principal,  said:  "One — two — 

three — present  I  "  and  as  the  last  final  sounding  of  the  letter 

"t"  escaped  his  teeth,  Burr  fired,  followed  almost  instantly 

by  the  other. 

Hamilton  arose  convulsively  on  his  toes,  reeled,  and  Burr, 

dropping  his  smoking  pistol,  sprang  towards  him  to  support 

him,  a  look  of  regret  on  his  face. 

Van  Ness  raised  an  umbrella  over  the  fallen  man,  and 

motioned  Burr  to  be  gone. 

The  ball  passed  through  Hamilton's  body,  breaking  a  rib, 

and  lodging  in  the  second  lumbar  vertebra. 

The  bullet  from  Hamilton's  pistol  cut  a  twig  four  feet  above 

Burr's  head. 

While  he  was  lying  on  the  ground  Hamilton  saw  his  pistol 

near  and  said,  "Look  out  for  that  pistol,  it  is  loaded — 

Pendleton  knows  I  did  not  intend  to  fire  at  him !  " 

Hamilton  died  the  following  day,  first  declaring  that  he 

bore  Colonel  Burr  no  ill-will. 

Colonel  Burr  said  he  very  much  regretted  the  whole  affair, 

but  the  language  and  attitude  of  Hamilton  forced  him  to 

send  a  challenge  or  remain  quiet  and  be  branded  as  a 

coward.  He  fully  realized  before  the  meeting  that  if  he 


ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 


85 


killed  Hamilton  it  would  be  political  death  for   him,  too. 

€J  At  the  time  of  the  deed  Burr  had  no  family ;  Hamilton  had 

a  wife  and  seven  children,  his  oldest  son  having  fallen  in 

a  duel  fought  three  years  before  on  the  identical  spot  where 

he,  too,  fell. 

Burr  fled  the  country. 

Three  years  afterwards,  he  was  arrested  for  treason  in  trying 

to  found  an  independent  state  within  the  borders  of  the 

United  States.  He  was  tried  and  found  not  guilty. 

After  some  years  spent  abroad  he  returned  and  took  up  the 

practise  of  law  in  New  York.  He  was  fairly  successful,  lived 

a  modest,  quiet  life,  and  died  September  Fourteenth,  Eighteen 

Hundred  Thirty-six,  aged  eighty  years. 

Hamilton's  widow  survived  him  just  one-half  a  century, 

dying  in  her  ninety-eighth  year. 

So  passeth  away  the  glory  of  the  world. 


SAMUEL  ADAMS 


SAW        B  L      ADAMS 


THE  body  of  the  people  are  now  in  council.  Their  opposi 
tion  grows  into  a  system.  They  are  united  and  resolute. 
And  if  the  British  Administration  and  Government  do  not 
return  to  the  principles  of  moderation  and  equity,  the  evil, 
which  they  profess  to  aim  at  preventing  by  their  rigorous 
measures,  will  the  sooner  be  brought  to  pass,  viz.,  the  entire 
separation  and  independence  of  the  Colonies. 

— Letter  to  Arthur  Lee. 


SAMUEL     ADAMS 


IAMUEL  and  John  Adams  were  second 
cousins,  having  the  same  great-grand 
father.  Between  them  in  many  ways  there 
was  a  marked  contrast,  but  true  to  their 
New  England  instincts  both  were  theo 
logians  jfc  jt 

John  was  a  conservative  in  politics,  and 
at  first  had  little  sympathy  with  "those 
small-minded  men  who  refused  to  pay  a 
trivial  tax  on  their  tea;  and  who  would 
plunge  the  country  into  war,  and  ruin  all 
for  a  matter  of  stamps."  John  was  born 
and  lived  at  the  village  of  Braintree.  He 
did  not  really  center  his  mind  on  politics 
until  the  British  had  closed  all  law-courts 
in  Boston,  thus  making  his  profession 
obsolete.  He  was  scholarly,  shrewd,  dip 
lomatic,  cautious,  good-natured,  fat,  and 
took  his  religion  with  a  wink.  He  was 
blessed  with  a  wife  who  was  worthy  of 
being  the  mother  of  kings  (or  presidents) ; 
he  lived  comfortably,  acquired  property, 
and  died  aged  ninety-two.  He  had  been 
President  and  seen  his  son  President  of 
the  United  States,  and  that  is  an  experience 
that  has  never  come  and  probably  never 
will  come  to  another  living  man,  for  there 
seems  to  be  an  unwritten  law  that  no  man 
under  fifty  shall  occupy  the  office  of 


92 SAMUEL      ADAMS 

Chief  Magistrate  of  these  United  States.  <J  Samuel  was 
stern,  serious  and  deeply  in  earnest.  He  seldom  smiled  and 
never  laughed.  He  was  uncompromisingly  religious,  con 
scientious  and  morally  unbending  jt  In  his  life  there  was 
no  soft  sentiment.  The  fact  that  he  ran  a  brewery  can  be 
excused  when  we  remember  that  the  best  spirit  of  the  times 
saw  nothing  inconsistent  in  the  occupation ;  and  further  than 
this  we  might  explain  in  extenuation  that  he  gave  the  busi 
ness  indifferent  attention,  and  the  quality  of  his  brew  was 
said  to  be  very  bad. 

In  religion,  he  swerved  not  nor  wavered.  He  was  a  Calvinist 
and  clung  to  the  five  points  with  a  tenacity  at  times  seemingly 
quite  unnecessary. 

When  in  that  first  Congress,  Samuel  Adams  publicly  con 
sented  to  the  opening  of  the  meeting  with  religious  service 
conducted  by  the  Reverend  Mr.  Duche,  an  Episcopal  clergy 
man,  he  gave  a  violent  wrench  to  his  conscience  and  an 
awful  shock  to  his  friends.  But  Mr.  Duche  met  the  issue  in 
the  true  spirit,  and  leaving  his  detested  "popery  robe"  and 
prayer-book  at  home  uttered  an  extemporaneous  invocation, 
without  a  trace  of  intoning,  that  pleased  the  Puritans  and 
caused  one  of  them  to  remark,  "He  is  surely  coming  over 
to  the  Lord's  side  1 " 

But  in  politics,  Samuel  Adams  was  a  liberal  of  the  liberals. 
In  statecraft,  the  heresy  of  change  had  no  terrors  for  him, 
and  with  Hamlet,  he  might  have  said,  "Oh,  reform  it  alto 
gether  I" 

The  limitations  set  in  every  character  seem  to  prevent  a 
man  from  being  generous  in  more  than  one  direction; 


SAMUEL      ADAMS 


93 


the  bigot  in  religion  is  often  a  liberal  in  politics,  and  vice 
versa.  For  instance,  physicians  are  almost  invariably  liberal 
in  religious  matters,  but  are  prone  to  call  a  man  "Mister" 
who  does  not  belong  to  their  school ;  while  orthodox  clergy 
men,  I  have  noticed,  usually  employ  a  homeopathist. 
In  that  most  valuable  and  interesting  work,  "The  Diary 
of  John  Adams,"  the  author  refers  repeatedly  to  Samuel 
Adams  as  "Adams"!  This  simple  way  of  using  the  word 
"Adams"  shows  a  world  of  appreciation  for  the  man  who 
blazed  the  path  that  others  of  this  illustrious  name  might 
follow.  And  so  with  the  high  precedent  in  mind,  I,  too,  will 
drop  prefix  and  call  my  subject  simply  "Adams." 
On  the  authority  of  King  George,  General  Gage  made  an 
offer  of  pardon  to  all  save  two  who  had  figured  in  the  Boston 
uprising  jfc  jfc 

The  two  men  thus  honored  were  John  Hancock  (whose 
signature  the  King  could  read  without  spectacles),  and  the 
other  was  "one,  S.  Adams." 

Adams,  however,  was  the  real  offender,  and  the  plea  might 
have  been  made  for  John  Hancock  that,  if  it  had  not  been 
for  accident  and  Adams,  Hancock  would  probably  have 
remained  loyal  to  the  mother  country. 
Hancock  was  aristocratic,  cultured  and  complacent.  He 
was  the  richest  man  in  New  England.  His  personal  interests 
were  on  the  side  of  peace  and  the  established  order.  But 
circumstances  and  the  combined  tact  and  zeal  of  Adams 
threw  him  off  his  guard,  and  in  a  moment  of  dalliance  the 
seeds  of  sedition  found  lodgment  in  his  brain.  And  the  more 
he  thought  about  it,  the  nearer  he  came  to  the  conclusion 


94 SAMUEL      ADAMS 

that  Adams  was  right.  But  let  the  fact  further  be  stated,  if 
truth  demands,  that  both  John  Hancock  and  Samuel  Adams, 
the  first  men  who  clearly  and  boldly  expressed  the  idea  of 
American  Independence,  were  moved  in  the  beginning  by 
personal  grievances. 

A  single  motion  made  before  the  British  Parliament  by  we 
know  not  whom,  and  put  to  vote  by  the  Speaker,  bankrupted 
the  father  of  Samuel  Adams  and  robbed  the  youth  of  his 
patrimony  jfc  j* 

The  boy  was  then  seventeen ;  old  enough  to  know  that  from 
plenty  his  father  was  reduced  to  penury,  and  this  because 
England,  three  thousand  miles  away,  had  interfered  with 
the  business  arrangements  of  the  Colony,  and  made  unlawful 
a  private  banking  scheme. 

Then  did  the  boy  ask  the  question,  What  moral  right  has 
England  to  govern  us,  anyway? 

From  thinking  it  over  he  began  to  formulate  reasons.  He 
discussed  the  subject  at  odd  times  and  thought  of  it  con 
tinually,  and,  in  Seventeen  Hundred  Forty-three,  when  he 
prepared  his  graduation  thesis  at  Harvard  College  he  chose 
for  his  subject,  "The  Doctrine  of  the  Lawfulness  of  Resist 
ance  to  the  Supreme  Magistrate  if  the  Commonwealth  Can 
Not  Otherwise  be  Preserved." 

When  Massachusetts  admitted  that  she  was  under  subjection 
to  the  King,  yet  argued  for  the  right  to  nullify  the  Acts  of 
the  English  Parliament,  she  took  exactly  the  same  ground 
that  South  Carolina  did  a  hundred  years  later.  The  logic  of 
Samuel  Adams  and  of  Hayne  was  one  and  the  same.  Yet 
we  are  glad  that  Adams  carried  his  point;  and  we  rejoice 


SAMUEL      ADAMS 95 

exceedingly  that  Hayne  failed,  so  curious  are  these  things 
we  call  "reasons." 

The  royalists  who  heard  of  this  youth  with  a  logical  mind 
denounced  him  without  stint.  A  few  newspapers  upheld  him 
and  spoke  of  the  right  of  free  speech  and  all  that,  reprinting 
the  thesis  in  full.  And  in  the  controversy  that  followed,  young 
Adams  was  always  a  prominent  figure.  He  was  not  an  orator 
in  the  popular  sense,  but  he  held  the  pen  of  a  ready  writer, 
and  through  the  Boston  papers  kept  up  a  constant  fusillade. 
<J  The  tricks  of  journalism  are  no  new  thing  belonging  to 
the  fag-end  of  this  century.  Young  Adams  wrote  letters  over 
the  "nom  de  plume"  of  Probono  Publico,  and  then  replied 
to  them  over  the  signature  of  Rex  Americus.  He  did  not  adopt 
as  his  motto,  "Let  not  thy  left  hand  know  what  thy  right 
hand  doeth,"  for  he  wrote  with  both  hands  and  each  hand 
was  in  the  secret. 

During  the  years  that  followed  his  graduation  from  college 
he  was  a  businessman  and  a  poor  one,  for  a  man  who  looks 
after  public  affairs  much  can  not  attend  to  his  own.  But  he 
managed  to  make  shift;  and  when  too  closely  pressed  by 
creditors,  a  loan  from  Hancock,  or  John  Adams,  Hancock's 
attorney,  relieved  the  pressure.  In  fact,  when  he  went  to 
Philadelphia  "on  that  very  important  errand,"  he  rode  a 
horse  borrowed  from  John  Adams,  and  his  Sunday  coat 
was  the  gift  of  a  thoughtful  friend. 
In  Seventeen  Hundred  Sixty-three,  it  became  known  that 
the  British  Government  had  on  foot  a  scheme  to  demand 
a  tribute  from  the  Colonies.  On  invitation  of  a  committee, 
possibly  appointed  by  Adams,  Adams  was  requested  to  draw 


p6 SAMUEL      ADAMS 

up  instructions  to  the  Representatives  in  the  Colonial  Legisla 
ture.  Adams  did  so  and  the  document  is  now  in  the  archives 
of  the  old  State  House  at  Boston,  in  the  plain  and  elegant 
penmanship  that  is  so  easily  recognized.  This  document 
calls  itself,  "The  First  Public  Denial  of  the  Right  of  the 
British  Parliament  to  tax  the  Colonies  without  their  Consent, 
and  the  first  Public  Suggestion  of  a  Union  on  the  part  of  the 
Colonies  to  Protect  themselves  against  British  Aggression." 
<J  The  style  of  the  paper  is  lucid,  firm  and  logical ;  it  combines 
in  itself  the  suggestion  of  all  there  was  to  be  said  or  could  be 
said  on  the  matter.  Adams  saw  all  over  and  around  his  topic 
— no  unpleasant  surprise  could  be  sprung  on  him — twenty- 
five  years  had  he  studied  this  one  theme  &  He  had  made 
himself  familiar  with  the  political  history  of  every  nation 
so  far  as  such  history  could  be  gathered ;  he  was  past  master 
of  his  subject. 

However,  when  he  was  forty  years  of  age  his  followers  were 
few  and  mostly  men  of  small  influence.  The  Caulker's  Club 
was  the  home  of  the  sedition,  and  many  of  the  members 
were  day-laborers.  But  the  idea  of  independence  gradually 
grew,  and,  in  Seventeen  Hundred  Sixty-five,  Adams  was 
elected  a  member  of  the  Massachusetts  Colonial  Legislature. 
In  honor  of  his  writing  ability,  he  was  chosen  clerk  of  the 
Assembly,  for  in  all  public  gatherings  orators  are  chosen 
as  presidents  and  newspapermen  for  secretaries.  Thus  are 
honors  distributed,  and  thus,  too,  does  the  public  show 
which  talent  it  values  most. 

On  November  Second,  Seventeen  Hundred  Seventy-two,  on 
motion  of  Adams,  a  committee  of  several  hundred  citizens 


SAMUEL      ADAMS 97 

was  appointed  "to  state  the  Rights  of  the  Colonies  and  to 
communicate  and  publish  them  to  the  World  as  the  sense 
of  the  Town,  with  the  infringements  and  violations  thereof 
that  have  been  or  may  be  made  from  time  to  time;  also 
requesting  from  each  Town  a  free  communication  of  their 
sentiments  on  this  Subject." 

This  was  the  Committee  of  Correspondence  from  which 
grew  the  union  of  the  Colonies  and  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States.  It  is  a  pretty  well  attested  fact  that  the  first 
suggestion  of  the  Philadelphia  Congress  came  from  Samuel 
Adams,  and  the  chief  work  of  bringing  it  about  was  also  his. 
CI  It  was  well  known  to  the  British  Government  who  the 
chief  agitator  was,  and  when  General  Gage  arrived  in  Boston 
in  May,  Seventeen  Hundred  Seventy-four,  his  first  work 
was  an  attempt  to  buy  off  Samuel  Adams.  With  Adams  out 
of  the  way,  England  might  have  adopted  a  policy  of  con 
ciliation  and  kept  America  for  her  very  own — yes,  to  the 
point  of  moving  the  home  government  here  and  saving  the 
snug  little  island  as  a  colony,  for  both  in  wealth  and  in 
population  America  has  now  far  surpassed  England. 
But  Adams  was  not  for  sale.  His  reply  to  Gage  sounds  like 
a  scrap  from  Cromwell:  "I  trust  I  have  long  since  made 
my  peace  with  the  King  of  Kings.  No  personal  consideration 
shall  induce  me  to  abandon  the  Righteous  Cause  of  my 
Country." 

Gage  having  refused  to  recognize  the  thirteen  Counselors 
appointed  by  the  people,  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts, 
in  secret  session,  appointed  five  delegates  to  attend  the 
Congress  of  Colonies  at  Philadelphia.  Of  course  Samuel 


98 SAMUEL      ADAMS 

Adams  was  one  of  these  delegates;  and  to  John  Adams, 
another  delegate,  are  we  indebted  for  a  minute  description 
of  that  most  momentous  meeting. 

A  room  in  the  State  House  had  been  offered  the  delegates, 
but  with  commendable  modesty  they  accepted  the  offer 
of  the  Carpenters'  Company  to  use  their  hall. 
And  so  there  they  convened  on  the  fifth  day  of  September, 
Seventeen  Hundred  Seventy-four,  having  met  by  appoint 
ment,  and  walked  over  from  the  City  Tavern  in  a  body  jfc 
Forty-four  men  were  present — not  a  large  gathering,  but 
they  had  come  hundreds  of  miles,  and  several  of  them  had 
been  months  on  the  journey. 

They  were  a  sturdy  lot ;  and  madam !  I  think  it  would  have 
been  worth  while  to  have  looked  in  upon  them.  There  were 
several  coonskin  caps  in  evidence;  also  lace  and  frills  and 
velvet  brought  from  England — but  plainness  to  severity 
was  the  rule.  Few  of  these  men  had  ever  been  away  from 
their  own  Colonies  before,  few  had  ever  met  any  members 
of  the  Congress  save  their  own  colleagues.  They  represented 
civilizations  of  very  different  degrees.  Each  stood  a  bit  in 
awe  of  all  the  rest.  Several  of  the  Colonies  had  been  in  conflict 
with  the  others. 

Meeting  new  men  in  those  days,  when  even  the  stagecoach 
was  a  passing  show  worth  going  miles  to  see,  was  an  event. 
There  was  awkwardness  and  nervousness  on  the  swarthy 
faces ;  firm  mouths  twitched,  and  big,  bony  hands  sought 
for  places  of  concealment. 

The  meeting  had  been  called  for  September  First,  but  was 
postponed  for  five  days  awaiting  the  arrival  of  belated  dele- 


SAMUEL      ADAMS 99 

gates  who  had  been  detained  by  floods.  Even  then,  delegates 
from  North  Carolina  had  not  arrived,  and  Georgia  not  having 
thought  it  worth  while  to  send  any,  eleven  Colonies  only 
were  represented.  Each  delegation  naturally  kept  together, 
as  men  will  who  have  a  fighting  history  and  a  pioneer 
ancestry  jt  jt 

It  was  a  serious,  solemn  business  and  these  men  were  not 
given  to  levity  in  any  event.  When  they  were  seated,  there 
was  a  moment  of  silence  so  tense  it  could  be  heard.  Every 
chance  movement  of  a  foot  on  the  uncarpeted  floor  sent  an 
echo  through  the  room. 

The  stillness  was  first  broken  by  Mr.  Lynch,  of  South  Caro 
lina,  who  arose  and  in  a  low,  clear  voice  said:  "There  is  a 
gentleman  present  who  has  presided  with  great  dignity 
over  a  very  respectable  body  and  greatly  to  the  advantage 
of  America.  Gentlemen,  I  move  that  the  Honorable  Peyton 
Randolph,  one  of  the  delegates  from  Virginia,  be  appointed 
to  preside  over  this  meeting.  I  doubt  not  it  will  be  unani 
mous."  jt>  jl 

It  was  so ;  and  a  large  man  in  powdered  wig  and  scarlet 
coat  arose,  and,  carrying  his  gold-headed  cane  before  him 
like  a  mace,  walked  to  the  platform  without  apology. 
The  New  En  glanders  in  homespun  looked  at  one  another  with 
trepidation  on  their  features.  The  red  coat  was  not  assuring, 
but  they  kept  their  peace  and  breathed  hard,  praying  that 
the  enemy  had  not  captured  the  convention  through  strategy. 
Mr.  Randolph's  first  suggestion  was  not  revolutionary;  it 
was  that  a  secretary  be  appointed. 
Again  Mr.  Lynch  arose  and  named  Charles  Thomson,  "a 


100 


SAMUEL      ADAMS 


gentleman  of  family,  fortune  and  character."  This  testi 
monial  of  family  and  fortune  was  not  assuring  to  the  plain 
Massachusetts  men,  but  they  said  nothing  and  awaited 
developments. 

All  were  cautious  as  woodsmen,  and  the  motion  that  the 
Council  be  held  behind  closed  doors  was  adopted.  Every 
member  then  held  up  his  right  hand  and  made  a  solemn 
promise  to  divulge  no  part  of  the  transactions ;  and  Galloway, 
of  Pennsylvania,  promised  with  the  rest,  and  straightway 
each  night  informed  the  enemy  of  every  move. 
Little  was  done  that  first  day  but  get  acquainted  by  talking 
very  cautiously  and  very  politely.  The  next  day  a  notable 
member  had  arrived,  and  in  a  front  seat  sat  Richard  Henry 
Lee,  a  man  you  would  turn  and  look  at  in  any  company. 
Slender  and  dark,  with  a  brilliant  eye  and  a  profile — and 
only  one  man  in  ten  thousand  has  a  profile — Lee  was  a 
gracious  presence.  His  voice  was  gentle  and  flexible  and 
luring,  and  there  was  a  dignity  and  poise  in  his  manner 
that  made  him  easily  the  foremost  orator  of  his  time. 
Near  him  sat  William  Livingston,  of  New  Jersey,  and  John 
Jay,  his  son-in-law,  the  youngest  man  in  the  Congress, 
with  a  nose  that  denoted  character,  and  all  his  fame  in  the 
future  jt  jt 

The  Pennsylvanians  were  all  together,  grouped  on  one  side. 
Duane,  of  New  York,  sat  near  them,  "shy  and  squint-eyed, 
very  sensible  and  very  artful,"  wrote  John  Adams  that 
night  in  his  diary. 

Then  over  there  sat  Christopher  Gadsden,  of  South  Carolina, 
who  had  preached  independence  for  full  ten  years  before 


SAMUEL      ADAMS 101 

this,  and  who,  when  he  heard  that  the  British  soldiers  had 
taken  Boston,  proposed  to  raise  a  troop  at  once  and  fight 
redcoats  wherever  found. 

"But  the  British  will  burn  our  seaport  towns  if  we  antago 
nize  them,"  some  timid  soul  explained. 
"Our  towns  are  built  of  brick  and  wood ;  if  they  are  burned 
we  can  rebuild  them ;  but  liberty  once  gone  is  gone  forever," 
he  retorted.  And  the  saying  sounds  well,  even  if  it  will  not 
stand  analysis. 

Back  near  the  wall  was  a  man  who,  when  the  assembly 
stood  at  morning  prayers,  showed  a  half-head  above  his 
neighbors.  His  face  was  broad,  and  he,  too,  had  a  profile. 
His  mouth  was  tightly  closed  and  during  the  first  fourteen 
days  of  that  Congress  he  never  opened  it  to  utter  a  word, 
and  after  his  long  quiet  he  broke  the  silence  by  saying,  "Mr. 
President,  I  second  the  motion."  Once,  in  a  passionate 
speech,  Lynch  turned  to  him  and  pointing  his  finger  said: 
'  'There  is  a  man  who  has  not  spoken  here,  but  in  the  Virginia 
Assembly  he  made  the  most  eloquent  speech  I  ever  heard. 
He  said,  'I  will  raise  a  thousand  men,  and  arm  and  subsist 
them  at  my  expense  and  march  them  to  the  relief  of  Boston.' " 
And  then  did  the  tall  man,  whose  name  was  George  Wash 
ington,  blush  like  a  schoolgirl. 

But  in  all  that  company  the  men  most  noticed  were  the  five 
members  from  Massachusetts.  They  were  Bowdoin,  Samuel 
Adams,  John  Adams,  Gushing  and  Robert  Treat  Paine. 
Massachusetts  had  thus  far  taken  the  lead  in  the  struggle 
with  England.  A  British  army  was  encamped  upon  her 
soil,  her  chief  city  besieged — the  port  closed.  Her  sufferings 


102 SAMUEL      ADAMS 

had  called  this  Congress  into  being,  and  to  her  delegates 
the  members  had  come  to  listen.  All  recognized  Samuel 
Adams  as  the  chief  man  of  the  Convention.  His  hand  wrote 
the  invitations  and  earnest  requests  to  come.  Galloway, 
writing  to  his  friends,  the  enemy,  said:  "Samuel  Adams 
eats  little,  drinks  little,  sleeps  little  and  thinks  much.  He 
is  most  decisive  and  indefatigable  in  the  pursuit  of  his  object. 
He  is  the  man  who,  by  his  superior  application,  manages 
at  once  the  faction  in  Philadelphia  and  the  factions  of  New 
England." 

Yet  Samuel  Adams  talked  little  at  the  Convention.  He 
allowed  John  Adams  to  state  the  case,  but  sat  next  to  him 
supplying  memoranda,  occasionally  arising  to  make  remarks 
or  explanations  in  a  purely  conversational  tone.  But  so 
earnest  and  impressive  was  his  manner,  so  ably  did  he 
answer  every  argument  and  reply  to  every  objection,  that 
he  thoroughly  convinced  a  tall,  angular,  homely  man  by 
the  name  of  Patrick  Henry  of  the  righteousness  of  his  cause. 
Patrick  Henry  was  pretty  thoroughly  convinced  before,  but 
the  recital  of  Boston's  case  fired  the  Virginian,  and  he  made 
the  first  and  only  real  speech  of  the  Congress.  In  burning 
words  he  pictured  all  the  Colonies  had  suffered  and  endured, 
and  by  his  matchless  eloquence  told  in  prophetic  words  of 
the  glories  yet  to  be.  In  his  speech  he  paid  just  tribute  to 
the  genius  of  Samuel  Adams,  declaring  that  the  good  that 
was  to  come  from  this  "first  of  an  unending  succession  of 
Congresses  "  was  owing  to  the  work  of  Adams.  And  in  after- 
years  Adams  repaid  the  compliment  by  saying  that  if  it  had 
not  been  for  the  cementing  power  of  Patrick  Henry's  elo- 


SAMUEL      ADAMS 103 

quence.  that  first  Congress  probably  would  have  ended  in 
a  futile  wrangle. 

The  South  regarded,  in  great  degree,  the  fight  in  Boston 
as  Massachusetts1  own.  To  make  the  entire  thirteen  Colonies 
adopt  the  quarrel  and  back  the  Colonial  army  in  the  vicinity 
of  Boston  was  the  only  way  to  make  the  issue  a  success, 
and  to  unite  the  factions  by  choosing  for  a  leader  a  Virginian 
aristocrat  was  a  crowning  stroke  of  diplomacy. 
John  Hancock  had  succeeded  Randolph  as  president  of 
the  second  Congress,  and  Virginia  was  inclined  to  be  luke 
warm,  when  John  Adams  in  an  impassioned  speech  nomi 
nated  Colonel  George  Washington  as  Commander-in-Chief 
of  the  Continental  Army.  The  nomination  was  seconded 
very  quietly  by  Samuel  Adams.  It  was  a  vote,  and  the  South 
was  committed  to  the  cause  of  backing  up  Washington,  and, 
incidentally,  New  England.  The  entire  plan  was  probably 
the  work  of  Samuel  Adams,  yet  he  gave  the  credit  to  John, 
while  the  credit  of  stoutly  opposing  it  goes  to  John  Hancock, 
who,  being  presiding  officer,  worked  at  a  disadvantage. 
But  Adams  had  a  way  of  reducing  opposition  to  the  mini 
mum.  He  kept  out  of  sight  and  furthered  his  ends  by  pushing 
this  man  or  that  to  the  front  at  the  right  time  to  make  the 
plea.  He  was  a  master  in  that  fine  art  of  managing  men 
and  never  letting  them  know  they  are  managed.  By  keeping 
behind  the  arras,  he  accomplished  purposes  that  a  leader 
never  can  who  allows  his  personality  to  be  in  continual 
evidence,  for  personality  repels  as  well  as  attracts,  and 
the  man  too  much  before  the  public  is  sure  to  be  undone 
eventually.  Adams  knew  that  the  power  of  Pericles  lay 


104 SAMUEL      ADAMS 

largely  in  the  fact  that  he  was  never  seen  upon  but  a  single 
street  of  Athens,  and  that  but  once  a  year. 
The  complete  writings  of  Adams  have  recently  been  collected 
and  published.  One  marvels  that  such  valuable  material  has 
not  before  been  printed  and  given  to  the  public,  for  the 
literary  style  and  perspicuity  shown  are  most  inspiring,  and 
the  value  of  the  data  can  not  be  gainsaid. 
No  one  ever  accused  Adams  of  being  a  muddy  thinker ;  you 
grant  his  premises  and  you  are  bound  to  accept  his  con 
clusions.  He  leaves  no  loopholes  for  escape. 
The  following  words,  used  by  Chatham,  refer  to  documents 
in  which  Adams  took  a  prominent  part  in  preparing : '  'When 
your  Lordships  look  at  the  papers  transmitted  us  from 
America,  when  you  consider  their  decency,  firmness  and 
wisdom,  you  can  not  but  respect  their  cause  and  wish  to 
make  it  your  own.  For  myself,  I  must  avow  that,  in  all 
my  reading — and  I  have  read  Thucydides  and  have  studied 
and  admired  the  master  statesmen  of  the  world — for  solidity 
of  reason,  force  of  sagacity,  and  wisdom  of  conclusion  under 
a  complication  of  difficult  circumstances,  no  body  of  men 
can  stand  in  preference  to  the  general  Congress  of  Phila 
delphia.  The  histories  of  Greece  and  Rome  give  us  nothing 
like  it,  and  all  attempts  to  impress  servitude  on  such  a 
mighty  continental  people  must  be  in  vain." 
In  the  life  of  Adams  there  was  no  soft  sentiment  nor  romantic 
vagaries.  "He  is  a  Puritan  in  all  the  word  implies,  and  the 
unbending  fanatic  of  independence,"  wrote  Gage,  and  the 
description  fits. 
He  was  twice  married.  Our  knowledge  of  his  first  wife  is 


SAMUEL      ADAMS 105 

very  slight,  but  his  second  wife,  Elizabeth  Wells,  daughter 
of  an  English  merchant,  was  a  capable  woman  of  brave 
good  sense.  She  adopted  her  husband's  political  views  and 
with  true  womanly  devotion  let  her  old  kinsmen  slide ;  and 
during  the  dark  hours  of  the  war  bore  deprivation  without 
repining  jfc  jt 

Adams'  home  life  was  simple  to  the  verge  of  hardship.  All 
through  life  he  was  on  the  ragged  edge  financially,  and  in 
his  latter  years  he  was  for  the  first  time  relieved  from  pressing 
obligations  by  an  afflicting  event — the  death  of  his  only  son, 
who  was  a  surgeon  in  Washington's  army.  The  money  paid 
to  the  son  by  the  Government  for  his  services  gave  the 
father  the  only  financial  competency  he  ever  knew.  Two 
daughters  survived  him,  but  with  him  died  the  name. 
John  Adams  survived  Samuel  for  twenty-three  years.  He 
lived  to  see  "the  great  American  experiment,"  as  Mr.  Ruskin 
has  been  pleased  to  call  our  country,  on  a  firm  basis,  con 
stantly  growing  stronger  and  stronger.  He  lived  to  realize 
that  the  sanguine  prophecies  made  by  Samuel  were  working 
themselves  out  in  very  truth. 

The  grave  of  Samuel  Adams  is  viewed  by  more  people  than 
that  of  any  other  American  patriot.  In  the  old  Granary 
Burying-Ground,  in  the  very  center  of  Boston,  on  Tremont 
Street — there  where  travel  congests,  and  two  living  streams 
meet  all  day  long — you  look  through  the  iron  fence,  so  slender 
that  it  scarce  impedes  the  view,  and  not  twenty  feet  from 
the  curb  is  a  simple  metal  disk  set  on  an  iron  rod  driven 
into  the  ground  and  on  it  this  inscription:  "This  marks 
the  grave  of  Samuel  Adams." 


io6 


SAMUEL      ADAMS 


For  many  years  the  grave  was  unmarked,  and  the  disk  that 
now  denotes  it  was  only  recently  placed  in  position  by  the 
Sons  of  the  American  Revolution.  But  the  place  of  Samuel 
Adams  on  the  pages  of  history  is  secure.  Upon  the  times  in 
which  he  lived  he  exercised  a  profound  influence.  And  he  who 
influences  the  times  in  which  he  lives  has  influenced  all  the 
times  that  come  after ;  he  has  left  his  impress  on  eternity. 


JOHN  HANCOCK 


JOHN 


K 


Boston,  Sept.  30, 1765. 
Gent: 

Since  my  last  I  have  received  your  favour  by  Capt  Hulme 
who  is  arriv'd  here  with  the  most  disagreeable  Commodity 
(say  Stamps)  that  were  imported  into  this  Country  &  what 
if  carry'd  into  Execution  will  entirely  Stagnate  Trade  here, 
for  it  is  universally  determined  here  never  to  Submitt  to  it 
and  the  principal  merchts  here  will  by  no  means  carry  on 
Business  under  a  Stamp,  we  are  in  the  utmost  Confusion 
here  and  shall  be  more  so  after  the  first  of  November  & 
nothing  but  the  repeal  of  the  act  will  righten,  the  Conse 
quence  of  its  taking  place  here  will  be  bad,  &  attended  with 
many  troubles,  &  I  believe  may  say  more  fatal  to  you  than 
us.  I  dread  the  Event. — Extract  from  Hancock's  Letter-Book. 


JOHN     HANCOCK 


ONG  years  ago  when  society  was  young, 
learning  was  centered  in  one  man  in  each 
community,  and  that  man  was  the  priest. 
It  was  the  priest  who  was  sent  for  in  every 
emergency  of  life.  He  taught  the  young, 
prescribed  for  the  sick,  advised  those  who 
were  in  trouble,  and  when  human  help 
was  vain  and  man  had  done  his  all,  this 
priest  knelt  at  the  bedside  of  the  dying 
and  invoked  a  Power  with  whom  it  was 
believed  he  had  influence.  <J  The  so-called 
learned  professions  are  only  another  exam 
ple  of  the  Division  of  Labor.  We  usually  say 
there  are  three  learned  professions:  The 
ology,  Medicine  and  Law.  As  to  which  is 
the  greater  is  a  much-mooted  question  and 
has  caused  too  many  family  feuds  for  me 
to  attempt  to  decide  it.  And  so  I  evade  the 
issue  and  say  there  is  a  fourth  profession, 
that  is  only  allowed  to  be  called  so  by 
grace,  but  which  in  my  mind  is  greater 
than  them  all — the  profession  of  Teacher. 
I  can  conceive  of  a  condition  of  society 
so  high  and  excellent  that  it  has  no  use 
for  either  doctor,  lawyer  or  preacher,  but 
the  teacher  would  still  be  needed.  Ignorance 
and  sin  supply  the  three  "  learned  pro 
fessions"  their  excuse  for  being,  but  the 
teacher's  work  is  to  develop  the  germ  of 


ii2 JOHN      HANCOCK 

wisdom  that  is  in  every  soul.  <JAnd  now  each  of  these 
professions  has  divided  up,  like  monads,  into  many 
heads  jfc  In  medicine,  we  have  as  many  specialists  as 
there  are  organs  of  the  body  jt  The  lawyer  who  advises 
you  in  a  copyright  or  patent  cause  knows  nothing  about 
admiralty ;  and  as  they  tell  us  a  man  who  pleads  his  own 
case  has  a  fool  for  a  client,  so  does  the  insurance  lawyer 
who  is  retained  to  foreclose  a  mortgage.  In  all  prosperous 
city  churches,  the  preacher  who  attracts  the  crowd  in  the 
morning  allows  a  'prentice  to  preach  to  the  young  folks 
in  the  evening;  he  does  not  make  pastoral  calls;  and  the 
curate  who  reads  the  service  at  funerals  is  never  called  upon 
to  perform  a  marriage  ceremony  except  in  a  case  of  charity. 
Likewise  the  teacher's  profession  has  its  specialists:  the 
man  who  teaches  Greek  well  can  not  write  good  English, 
and  the  man  who  teaches  composition  is  baffled  and  per 
plexed  by  long  division;  and  the  teacher  who  delights  in 
trigonometry  poohpoohs  a  kindergartner. 
Just  where  this  evolutionary  dividing  and  subdividing  of 
social  cells  will  land  the  race  no  man  can  say;  but  that  a 
specialist  is  a  dangerous  man,  is  sure.  He  is  a  buzz-saw 
with  which  wise  men  never  monkey.  A  surgeon  who  has 
operated  for  appendicitis  five  times  successfully  is  above 
all  to  be  avoided.  I  once  knew  a  man  with  lung  trouble 
who  inadvertently  strayed  into  an  oculist's,  and  was  looked 
over  and  sent  away  with  an  order  on  an  optician.  And  should 
you  through  error  stray  into  the  office  of  a  nose  and  throat 
specialist,  and  ask  him  to  treat  you  for  varicose  veins,  he 
would  probably  do  so  by  nasal  douche. 


JOHN       HANCOCK 113 

Even  now  a  specialist  in  theology  will  lead  us,  if  he  can, 
a  merry  "ignis-fatuus "  chase  and  land  us  in  a  morass. 
The  only  thing  that  saved  the  priest  in  days  agone  was  the 
fact  that  he  had  so  many  duties  to  perform  that  he  exercised 
all  his  mental  muscles,  and  thus  attained  a  degree  of  all- 
roundness  which  is  not  possible  to  the  specialist.  Even  then 
there  were  not  lacking  men  who  found  time  to  devote  to 
specialties:  Bishop  Georgius  Ambrosius,  for  instance,  who 
in  the  Fifteenth  Century  produced  a  learned  work  proving 
that  women  have  no  souls.  And  a  like  book  was  written  at 
Nashville,  Tennessee,  in  Eighteen  Hundred  Fifty-nine,  by 
the  Reverend  Hubert  Parsons  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  (South),  showing  that  negroes  were  in  a  like 
predicament.  But  a  more  notable  instance  of  the  danger 
of  a  specialty  is  the  Reverend  Cotton  Mather,  who  investi 
gated  the  subject  of  witchcraft  and  issued  a  modest  brochure 
incorporating  his  views  on  the  subject.  He  succeeded  in 
convincing  at  least  one  man  of  its  verity,  and  that  man 
was  himself,  and  thus  immortality  was  given  to  the  town 
of  Salem,  which,  otherwise,  would  have  no  claim  on  us 
for  remembrance,  save  that  Hawthorne  was  once  a  clerk 
in  its  custom-house. 

A  very  slight  study  of  Colonial  history  will  show  any  student 
that,  for  two  centuries,  the  ministers  in  New  England  occu 
pied  very  much  the  same  position  in  society  that  the  priest 
did  during  the  Middle  Ages.  As  the  monks  kept  learning 
from  dying  off  the  face  of  earth,  so  did  the  ministers  of 
the  New  World  preserve  culture  from  passing  into  forget- 
fulness.  Very  seldom,  indeed,  were  books  to  be  found  in  a 


ii4 JOHN      HANCOCK 

community  except  at  the  minister's.  And  during  the  Seven 
teenth  Century,  and  well  into  the  Eighteenth,  he  combined 
in  himself  the  offices  of  doctor,  lawyer,  preacher  and  teacher. 
Mr.  Lowell  has  said:  "I  can  not  remember  when  there  was 
not  one  or  more  students  in  my  father's  household,  and 
others  still  who  came  at  regular  intervals  to  recite.  And 
this  was  the  usual  custom.  It  was  the  minister  who  fitted 
boys  for  college,  and  no  youth  was  ever  sent  away  to  school 
until  he  had  been  well  drilled  by  the  local  clergyman." 
And  it  must  further  be  noted,  that  genealogical  tables  show 
that  very  nearly  all  of  the  eminent  men  of  New  England 
were  sons  of  ministers,  or  of  an  ancestry  where  ministers' 
names  are  seen  at  frequent  intervals. 
As  an  intellectual  and  moral  force,  the  minister  has  now 
but  a  rudiment  of  the  power  he  once  exercised.  The  tendency 
to  specialize  all  art  and  all  knowledge  has  to  a  degree  shorn 
him  of  his  strength.  And  to  such  an  extent  is  this  true,  that 
within  forty  years  it  has  passed  into  a  common  proverb 
that  the  sons  of  clergymen  are  rascals,  whereas  in  Colonial 
days  the  highest  recommendation  a  youth  could  carry  was 
that  he  was  the  son  of  a  minister. 

The  Reverend  John  Hancock,  grandfather  of  John  Hancock 
the  patriot,  was  for  more  than  half  a  century  the  minister 
of  Lexington,  Massachusetts.  I  say  "the  minister,"  because 
there  was  only  one:  the  keen  competition  of  sect  that 
establishes  half  a  dozen  preachers  in  a  small  community 
is  a  very  modern  innovation. 

John  Hancock,  "Bishop  of  Lexington,"  was  a  man  of  pro 
nounced  personality,  as  is  plainly  seen  in  his  portrait  in  the 


JOHN      HANCOCK 115 

Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts.  They  say  he  ruled  the  town 
with  a  rod  of  iron ;  and  when  the  young  men,  who  adorned 
the  front  steps  of  the  meetinghouse  during  service,  grew 
disorderly,  he  stopped  in  his  prayer,  and  going  outside 
soundly  cuffed  the  ears  of  the  first  delinquent  he  could 
lay  hands  upon.  In  his  clay  there  was  a  dash  of  facetiousness 
that  saved  him  from  excess,  supplying  a  useful  check  to  his 
zeal — for  zeal  uncurbed  is  very  bad.  He  was  a  wise  and 
beneficent  dictator;  and  government  under  such  a  one 
can  not  be  improved  upon.  His  manner  was  gracious,  frank 
and  open,  and  such  was  the  specific  gravity  of  his  nature, 
that  his  words  carried  weight,  and  his  wish  was  sufficient. 
Cf  The  house  where  this  fine  old  autocrat  lived  and  reigned 
is  standing  in  Lexington  now.  When  you  walk  out  through 
Cambridge  and  Arlington  on  your  way  to  Concord,  following 
the  road  the  British  took  on  their  way  out  to  Concord,  you 
will  pass  by  it.  It  is  a  good  place  to  stop  and  rest.  You  will 
know  the  place  by  the  tablet  in  front,  on  which  is  the  legend : 
"Here  John  Hancock  and  Samuel  Adams  were  sleeping  on 
the  night  of  the  Eighteenth  of  April,  Seventeen  Hundred 
Seventy-five,  when  aroused  by  Paul  Revere." 
The  Reverend  Jonas  Clark  owned  the  house  after  the 
Reverend  John  Hancock,  and  the  ministries  of  those 
two  men,  and  their  occupancy  of  the  house,  cover  one 
hundred  years  and  five  years  more.  Here  the  thirteen  children 
of  Jonas  Clark  were  born,  and  all  lived  to  be  old  men  and 
women.  When  you  call  there  I  hope  you  will  be  treated 
with  the  same  gentle  courtesy  that  I  met.  If  you  delay  not 
your  visit  too  long,  you  will  see  a  fine,  motherly  woman, 


u6 


JOHN      HANCOCK 


with  white  "sausage  curls  "  and  a  high  back-comb,  wearing 
a  check  dress  and  felt  slippers,  and  she  will  tell  you  that  she 
is  over  eighty,  and  that  when  her  mother  was  a  little  girl 
she  once  sat  on  Governor  Hancock's  knee  and  he  showed 
her  the  works  in  his  watch. 

And  then  as  you  go  away  you  will  think  again  of  what  the 
old  lady  has  just  told  you,  and  as  you  look  back  for  a  parting 
glance  at  the  house,  standing  firm  and  solemn  in  its  rusty- 
gray  dignity,  you  will  doff  your  hat  to  it,  and  mayhap 
murmur:  The  days  of  man  on  earth — they  are  but  as  a 
passing  shadow! 

"Here  John  Hancock  and  Samuel  Adams  were  sleeping 
when  aroused  by  Paul  Revere ! "  Merchant-prince  and 
agitator,  horse  and  rider — where  are  you  now?  And  is 
your  sleep  disturbed  by  dreams  of  British  redcoats,  or  hissing 
flintlocks?  Phantom  British  warships  may  lie  at  their 
moorings,  swinging  wide  on  the  unforgetting  tide,  lanterns 
may  hang  high  in  the  belfry  of  the  Old  North  Church 
tower,  hurried  knocks  and  calls  of  defiance  and  hoof-beats 
of  fast-galloping  steed  may  echo  and  echo  again,  borne  on 
the  night-wind  of  the  dim  Past,  but  you  heed  them  not! 


JOHN      HANCOCK 117 

(HE  Reverend  John  Hancock  of  Lexington  had  two 
sons.  John  Hancock  (Number  Two)  became  pastor  of 
the  church  of  the  North  Precinct  of  the  town  of 
Braintree,  which  afterwards  was  to  be  the  town  of  Quincy. 
<J  The  nearest  neighbor  to  the  village  preacher  was  John 
Adams,  shoemaker  and  fanner.  Each  Sunday  in  the  amen 
corner  of  the  Reverend  John  Hancock's  meetinghouse,  was 
mustered  the  well  washed  and  combed  brood  of  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Adams.  Now,  this  John  Adams  had  a  son  whom  the 
Reverend  John  Hancock  baptized,  also  named  John,  two 
years  older  than  John  the  son  of  the  preacher.  And  young 
John  Adams  and  John  Hancock  (Number  Three)  used  to  fish 
and  swim  together,  and  go  nutting,  and  set  traps  for  squirrels, 
and  help  each  other  in  fractions.  And  then  they  would  climb 
trees,  and  wrestle,  and  sometimes  fight.  In  the  fights,  they 
say,  John  Hancock  used  to  get  the  better  of  his  antagonist, 
but  as  an  exploiter  of  fractions  John  Adams  was  more  than 
his  equal. 

The  parents  of  John  Adams  were  industrious  and  savin' — the 
little  farm  prospered,  for  Boston  supplied  a  goodly  market, 
and  weekly  trips  were  made  there  in  a  one-horse  cart,  often 
piloted  by  young  John,  with  the  minister's  boy  for  ballast. 
The  Adams  family  had  ambitions  for  their  son  John — he 
was  to  go  to  Harvard  and  be  educated,  and  be  a  minister 
and  preach  at  Braintree,  or  Weymouth,  or  perhaps  even 
Boston ! 

In  the  meantime  the  Reverend  John  Hancock  had  died, 
and  the  widowed  mother  was  not  able  to  give  her  boy  a 
college  education — times  were  hard. 


ii8 JOHN      HANCOCK 

But  the  lad's  uncle,  Thomas  Hancock,  a  prosperous  merchant 
of  Boston,  took  quite  an  interest  in  young  John.  And  it 
occurred  to  him  to  adopt  the  fatherless  boy,  legally,  as  his 
own.  The  mother  demurred,  but  after  some  months  decided 
that  it  was  best  so,  for  when  twenty-one  he  would  be  her 
boy  just  as  much  and  as  truly  as  if  his  uncle  had  not  adopted 
him.  And  so  the  rich  uncle  took  him,  and  rigged  him  out 
with  a  deal  finer  clothing  than  he  had  ever  before  worn, 
and  sent  him  to  the  Latin  School  and  afterward  over  to 
Cambridge,  with  silver  jingling  in  his  pocket. 
Prosperity  is  a  severe  handicap  to  youth;  not  very  many 
grown  men  can  stand  it;  but  beyond  a  needless  display  of 
velvet  coats  and  frilled  shirts,  the  young  man  stood  the  test, 
and  got  through  Harvard.  In  point  of  scholarship  he  did 
not  stand  so  high  as  John  Adams;  and  between  the  lads 
there  grew  a  small  but  well-defined  gulf,  as  is  but  natural 
between  homespun  and  broadcloth.  Still  the  gulf  was  not 
impassable,  for  over  it  friendly  favors  were  occasionally 
passed  ^  j& 

John  Hancock's  mother  wanted  him  to  be  a  preacher,  but 
Uncle  Thomas  would  not  listen  to  it — the  youth  must  be 
taught  to  be  a  merchant,  so  he  could  be  the  ready  helper 
and  then  the  successor  of  his  foster-father. 
Graduating  at  the  early  age  of  seventeen,  John  Hancock 
at  once  went  to  work  in  his  uncle's  countinghouse  in  Boston. 
He  was  a  fine,  tall  fellow  with  dash  and  spirit,  and  seemed 
to  show  considerable  aptitude  for  the  work.  The  business 
prospered,  and  Uncle  Thomas  was  very  proud  of  his  hand 
some  ward  who  was  quite  in  demand  at  parties  and  balls 


JOHN       HANCOCK 119 

and  in  a  general  social  way,  while  the  uncle  could  not  dance 
a  minuet  to  save  him. 

Not  needing  the  young  man  very  badly  around  the  store, 
the  uncle  sent  him  to  Europe  to  complete  his  education  by 
travel.  He  went  with  the  retiring  Governor  Pownal,  whose 
taste  for  social  enjoyment  was  very  much  in  accord  with 
his  own.  In  England,  he  attended  the  funeral  of  George 
the  Second,  and  saw  the  coronation  of  George  the  Third, 
little  thinking  the  while  that  he  would  some  day  make  violent 
efforts  to  snatch  from  that  crown  its  brightest  jewel. 
When  young  Hancock  was  twenty-seven,  the  uncle  died, 
and  left  to  him  his  entire  fortune  of  three  hundred  fifty 
thousand  dollars.  It  made  him  one  of  the  very  richest  men 
in  the  Colony — for  at  that  time  there  was  not  a  man  in 
Massachusetts  worth  half  a  million  dollars. 
The  jingling  silver  in  his  pocket  when  sent  to  Harvard  had 
severely  tested  his  moral  fiber,  but  this  great  fortune  came 
near  smothering  all  his  native  commonsense.  If  a  man  makes 
his  money  himself,  he  stands  a  certain  chance  of  growing  as 
the  pile  grows.  There  is  a  little  doubt  as  to  the  soundness  of 
Emerson's  epigram,  that  what  you  put  into  his  chest  you 
take  out  of  the  man.  More  than  this,  when  a  man  gradually 
accumulates  wealth,  it  attracts  little  attention,  so  the  mob 
that  follows  the  newly  rich  never  really  gets  onto  the  scent. 
And  besides  that,  the  man  who  makes  his  own  fortune 
always  stands  ready  to  repel  boarders. 
There  may  be  young  men  of  twenty-seven  who  are  men 
grown,  and  no  doubt  every  man  of  twenty-seven  is  very 
sure  that  he  is  one  of  these;  but  the  thought  that  man  is 


120 JOHN       HANCOCK 

mortal  never  occurs  to  either  men  or  women  until  they 
are  past  thirty.  The  blood  is  warm,  conquest  lies  before, 
and  to  seize  the  world  by  the  tail  and  snap  its  head  off  seems 
both  easy  and  desirable. 

The  promoters,  the  flatterers  and  friends  until  then  unknown 
flocked  to  Hancock  and  condoled  with  him  on  the  death  of 
his  uncle.  Some  wanted  small  loans  to  tide  over  temporary 
emergencies,  others  had  business  ventures  in  hand  whereby 
John  Hancock  could  double  his  wealth  very  shortly.  Still 
others  spoke  of  wealth  being  a  trust,  and  to  use  money  to 
help  your  fellow-men,  and  thus  to  secure  the  gratitude  of 
many,  was  the  proper  thing. 

The  unselfishness  of  the  latter  suggestion  appealed  to  Han 
cock.  To  be  the  friend  of  humanity,  to  assist  others — this 
is  the  highest  ambition  to  which  a  man  can  aspire!  And, 
of  course,  if  one  is  pointed  out  on  the  street  as  the  good 
Mr.  Hancock  it  can  not  be  helped.  It  is  the  penalty  of  well 
doing  «jfc  £> 

So  in  order  to  give  work  to  many  and  to  promote  the  interests 
of  Boston,  a  thriving  city  of  fifteen  thousand  inhabitants, 
for  all  good  men  wish  to  build  up  the  place  in  which  they 
live,  John  Hancock  was  induced  to  embark  in  shipbuilding. 
He  also  owned  several  ships  of  his  own  which  traded  with 
London  and  the  West  Indies,  and  was  part  owner  of  others. 
But  he  publicly  explained  that  he  did  not  care  to  make  money 
for  himself — his  desire  was  to  give  employment  to  the  worthy 
poor  and  to  enhance  the  good  of  Boston. 
The  aristocratic  company  of  militia,  known  as  the  Governor's 
Guard,  had  been  fitted  out  with  new  uniforms  and  arms  by 


JOHN      HANCOCK 121 

the  generous  Hancock,  and  he  had  been  chosen  commanding 
officer,  with  rank  of  Colonel.  He  drilled  with  the  crack 
company  and  studied  the  manual  much  more  diligently 
than  he  ever  had  his  Bible. 

Hancock  lived  in  the  mansion,  inherited  from  his  uncle, 
on  Beacon  Street,  facing  the  Common.  There  was  a  chariot 
and  six  horses  for  state  occasions,  much  fine  furniture  from 
over  the  sea,  elegant  clothes  that  the  Puritans  called  "gaudy 
apparel,"  and  at  the  dinners  the  wine  flowed  freely,  and 
cards,  dancing  and  music  filled  many  a  night. 
The  Puritan  neighbors  were  shocked,  and  held  up  their 
hands  in  horror  to  think  that  the  son  of  a  minister  should 
so  affront  the  staid  and  sober  customs  of  his  ancestors.  Still 
others  said,  "Why,  that 's  what  a  rich  man  should  do — spend 
his  money,  of  course ;  Hancock  is  the  benefactor  of  his  kind ; 
just  see  how  many  people  he  employs  1  " 
The  town  was  all  agog,  and  Hancock  was  easily  Boston's 
first  citizen,  but  in  his  time  of  prosperity  he  did  not  forget 
his  old  friends.  He  sent  for  them  to  come  and  make  merry 
with  him ;  and  among  the  first  in  his  good  offices  was  John 
Adams,  the  rising  young  lawyer  of  Braintree. 
John  Adams  had  found  clients  scarce,  and  those  he  had, 
poor  pay,  but  when  he  became  the  trusted  legal  adviser  of 
John  Hancock,  things  took  a  turn  and  prosperity  came  that 
way.  The  wine  and  cards  and  dinners  had  n't  much  attraction 
for  him,  but  still  there  were  no  conscientious  scruples  in  the 
way.  He  patted  John  Hancock  on  the  back,  assured  him 
that  he  was  the  people,  looked  after  his  interests  loyally, 
and  extracted  goodly  fees  for  services  performed. 


122 JOHN      HANCOCK 

At  the  home  of  Adams  at  Braintree,  Hancock  had  met  a 
quiet,  taciturn  individual  by  the  name  of  Samuel  Adams. 
This  man  he  had  long  known  in  a  casual  way,  but  had  never 
been  able  really  to  make  his  acquaintance.  He  was  fifteen 
years  older  than  Hancock,  and  by  his  quiet  dignity  and 
self-possession  made  quite  an  impression  on  the  young  man. 
*1  So,  now  that  prosperity  had  smiled,  Hancock  invited  him 
to  his  house,  but  the  quiet  man  was  an  ascetic  and  neither 
played  cards,  drank  wine  nor  danced,  and  so  declined  with 
thanks  jt  jt, 

But  not  long  after,  he  requested  a  small  loan  from  the 
merchant-prince,  and  asked  it  as  though  it  were  his  right, 
and  so  he  got  it.  His  manner  was  in  such  opposition  to  the 
flatterers  and  those  who  crawled,  and  whined,  and  begged, 
that  Hancock  was  pleased  with  the  man.  Samuel  Adams 
had  declined  Hancock's  social  favors,  and  yet,  in  asking 
for  a  loan,  showed  his  friendliness. 
Samuel  Adams  was  a  politician,  and  had  long  taken  an 
active  part  in  the  town  meetings.  In  fact,  to  get  a  measure 
through,  it  was  well  to  have  Samuel  Adams  at  your  side. 
He  was  clear-headed,  astute,  and  knew  the  human  heart. 
Yet  he  talked  but  little,  and  the  convivial  ways  of  the  small 
politician  were  far  from  him ;  but  in  the  fine  art  that  can 
manage  men  and  never  let  them  know  they  are  managed 
he  was  a  past-master.  Tucked  in  his  sleeve,  no  doubt,  was 
a  degree  of  pride  in  his  power,  but  the  stoic  quality  in  his 
nature  never  allowed  him  to  break  into  laughter  when  he 
considered  how  he  led  men  by  the  nose. 
In  Boston  and  its  vicinity,  Samuel  Adams  was  not  highly 


JOHN       HANCOCK 123 

regarded,  and  outside  of  Boston,  at  forty  years  of  age,  he 
was  positively  unknown.  The  neighbors  regarded  him  as  a 
harmless  fanatic,  sane  on  most  subjects,  but  possessed  of  a 
buzzing  bee  in  his  bonnet  to  the  effect  that  the  Colonies 
should  be  separated  from  their  protector,  England.  Samuel 
Adams  neglected  his  business  and  kept  up  a  fusillade  of 
articles  in  the  newspapers,  on  various  political  subjects, 
and  men  who  do  this  are  regarded  everywhere  as  "queer." 
A  professional  newspaper-writer  never  takes  his  calling 
seriously — it  is  business.  He  writes  to  please  his  employer, 
or  if  he  owns  the  paper  himself,  he  still  writes  to  please  his 
employer,  that  is  to  say,  the  public.  Journalism,  thy  name 
is  pander! 

The  man  who  comes  up  the  stairway  furtively,  with  an  MS. 
he  wants  printed,  is  in  dead  earnest ;  and  he  has  excited  the 
ridicule,  wrath  or  pity  of  editors  for  three  hundred  years. 
Such  a  one  was  Samuel  Adams.  His  wife  did  her  own  work, 
and  the  grocer  with  bills  in  his  hand  often  grew  red  in  the 
face  and  knocked  in  vain. 

And  yet  the  keen  intellect  of  Samuel  Adams  was  not  a  thing 
to  smile  at.  Any  one  who  stood  before  him,  face  to  face, 
felt  the  power  of  the  man,  and  acknowledged  it  then  and 
there,  as  we  always  do  when  we  stand  in  the  presence  of 
a  strong  individuality.  And  this  inward  acknowledgment 
of  worth  was  instinctively  made  by  John  Hancock,  the 
biggest  man  hi  all  Boston  town. 

John  Hancock,  through  his  genial,  glowing  personality, 
and  his  lavish  spending  of  money,  was  very  popular.  He 
was  being  fed  on  flattery,  and  the  more  a  man  gets  of 


124 JOHN       HANCOCK 

flattery,  once  the  taste  is  acquired,  the  more  he  craves.  It 

is  like  the  mad  thirst  for  liquor,  or  the  romeike  habit. 

John  Hancock  was  getting  attention,  and  he  wanted  more. 

He  had  been  chosen  selectman  to  fill  the  place  his  uncle 

had  occupied,  and  when  Samuel  Adams  incidentally  dropped 

a  remark  that  good  men  were  needed  in  the  General  Court, 

John  Hancock  agreed  with  him. 

He  was  named  for  the  office  and  with  Samuel  Adams'  help 

was  easily  elected. 

Not  long  after  this,  the  sloop  "Liberty"  was  seized  by  the 

government  officials  for  violation  of  the  revenue  laws.  The 

craft  was  owned  by  John  Hancock  and  had  surreptitiously 

landed  a  cargo  of  wine  without  paying  duty. 

When  the  ship  of  Boston's  chief  citizen  was  seized  by  the 

bumptious,  gilt-braided  British  officials,  there  was  a  merry 

uproar.  All  the  men  in  the  shipyards  quit  work,  and  the 

Calkers'   Club,   of  which   Samuel  Adams  was   secretary, 

passed  hot  resolutions  and  revolutionary  preambles  and 

eulogies  of  John  Hancock,  who  was  doing  so  much  for 

Boston   «jt    ,jt 

In  fact,  there  was  a  riot,  and  three  regiments  of  British 

troops  were  ordered  to  Boston. 

And  this  was  the  very  first  step  on  the  part  of  England 

to  enforce  her  authority,  by  arms,  in  America. 

The  troops  were  in  the  town  to  preserve  order,  but  the 

mob  would  not  disperse.  Upon  the  soldiers,  they  heaped 

every  indignity  and  insult  jfc  They  dared  them  to  shoot, 

and  with  clubs  and  stones  drove  the  soldiers  before  them. 

At  last  the  troops  made  a  stand  and  in  order  to  save  them- 


JOHN       HANCOCK 125 

selves  from  absolute  rout  fired  a  volley.  Five  men  fell  dead 
— and  the  mob  dispersed. 
This  was  the  so-called  Boston  massacre. 
Pinkerton  guards  would  blush  at  bagging  so  small  a  game 
with  a  volley.  They  have  done  better  again  and  again  at 
Pittsburgh,  Pottsville  and  Chicago. 

The  riot  was  quelled,  and  out  of  the  scrimmage  various 
suits  were  instigated  by  the  Crown  against  John  Hancock, 
in  the  Court  of  Admiralty.  The  claims  against  him  amounted 
to  over  three  hundred  thousand  dollars,  and  the  charge  was 
that  he  had  long  been  evading  the  revenue  laws.  John  Adams 
was  his  attorney,  with  Samuel  Adams  as  counsel,  and 
vigorous  efforts  for  prosecution  and  defense  were  being  made. 
<ff  If  the  Crown  were  successful  the  suits  would  confiscate 
the  entire  Hancock  estate — matters  were  getting  in  a  serious 
way.  Witnesses  were  summoned,  but  the  trial  was  staved 
off  from  time  to  time. 

Hancock  had  refused  to  follow  Samuel  Adams'  lead  in  the 
controversy  with  Governor  Hutchinson  as  to  the  right  to 
convene  the  General  Court.  The  report  was  that  John  Han 
cock  was  growing  lukewarm  and  siding  with  the  Tories. 
A  year  had  passed  since  the  massacre  had  occurred,  and 
the  agitators  proposed  to  commemorate  the  day. 
Colonel  Hancock  had  appeared  in  many  prominent  parts, 
but  never  as  an  orator. 

"Why  not  show  the  town  what  you  can  do !  "  some  one  said. 
<J  So  John  Hancock  was  invited  to  deliver  the  oration.  He 
did  so  to  an  immense  concourse.  The  address  was  read  from 
the  written  page.  It  overflowed  with  wisdom  and  patriotism ; 


126 


JOHN       HAN  COCK 


and  the  earnestness  and  eloquence  of  the  well-rounded 

periods  was  the  talk  of  the  town. 

The  knowing  ones  went  around  corners  and  roared  with 

laughter,  but  Samuel  Adams  said  not  a  word.  The  charge 

was  everywhere  made  by  the  captious  and  bickering  that 

the  speech  was  written  by  another,  and  that,  moreover, 

John  Hancock  had  not  even  a  very  firm  hold  on  its  import. 

It  was  the  one  speech  of  his  life.  Anyway,  it  so  angered 

General  Gage  that  he  removed  Colonel  Hancock  from  his 

command  of  the  cadets. 

An  order  was  out  for  Hancock's  arrest,  and  he  and  Samuel 

Adams  were  in  hiding. 

The  British  troops  marched  out  to  Lexington  to  capture 

them,  but  Paul  Revere  was  two  hours  ahead,  and  when 

the  redcoats  arrived  the  birds  had  flown. 

Then  came  the  expulsion  of  the  British,  the  closing  of  all 

courts,  the  Admiralty  included.  The  merchant-prince  breathed 

easier,  and  that  was  the  last  of  the  Crown  vs.  John  Hancock. 


JOHN      HANCOCK 127 

URING  the  months  that  had  gone  before,  when  the 
Hancock  mansion  was  gay  with  floral  decorations, 
and  servants  in  livery  stood  at  the  door  with  silver 
trays,  and  the  dancing-hall  was  bright  with  mirth  and 
music,  Samuel  Adams  had  quietly  been  working  his  Bureau 
of  Correspondence  to  the  end  that  the  thirteen  Colonies  of 
America  should  come  together  in  convention.  Chief  mover 
of  the  plan,  and  the  one  man  hi  Massachusetts  who  was 
giving  all  his  time  to  it,  he  dictated  whom  Massachusetts 
should  send  as  delegates  jt  This  delegation,  as  we  know, 
included  John  Hancock,  John  Adams  and  Samuel  Adams 
himself  jt  <•£ 

From  the  danger  of  Lexington,  Hancock  and  Adams  made 
their  way  to  Philadelphia  to  attend  the  Second  Congress. 
Ci  At  that  time  the  rich  men  of  New  England  were  hurriedly 
making  their  way  into  the  English  fold.  Some  thought  that 
the  mother  country  had  been  harsh,  but,  still,  England  had 
only  acted  within  her  right,  and  she  was  well  able  to  back 
up  this  authority.  She  had  regiment  upon  regiment  of  trained 
fighting  men,  warships,  and  money  to  build  more.  The 
Colonies  had  no  army,  no  ships,  no  capital. 
Only  those  who  have  nothing  to  lose  can  afford  to  resist 
lawful  authority — back  into  the  fold  they  went,  penitent 
and  under  their  breath  cursing  the  bull-headed  men  who 
insisted  on  plunging  the  country  into  red  war. 
Out  in  the  cold  world  stood  John  Hancock,  alone,  save  for 
Bowdoin,  among  the  aristocrats  of  New  England  jt  The 
British  would  confiscate  his  property,  his  splendid  house — 
all  would  be  gone! 


128 JOHN      HANCOCK 

"It  will  all  be  gone,  anyway,"  calmly  suggested  Samuel 

Adams.  "You  know  those  suits  against  you  in  the  Admiralty 

Court?  " 

"Yes,  yes!" 

"And  if  we  can  unite  these  thirteen  Colonies  an  army  can 

be  raised,  and  we  can  separate  ourselves  entire,  in  which 

case  there  will  be  glory  for  somebody." 

John  Hancock,  the  rich,  the  ambitious,  the  pleasure-loving, 

had  burned  his  bridges  jt  He  was  in  the  hands  of  Samuel 

Adams,  and  his  infamy  was  one  with  this  man  who  was  a 

professional  agitator,  and  who  had  nothing  to  lose. 

General  Gage  had  made  an  offer  of  pardon  to  all — all,  save 

two  men — Samuel  Adams  and  John  Hancock.  Back  into 

the  fold  tumbled  the  Tories,  but  against  John  Hancock 

the  gates  were  barred.  John  Adams,  Attorney  of  the  Hancock 

estate,  rubbed  his  chin,  and  decided  to  stand  by  the  ship 

— sink  or  swim,  survive  or  perish. 

Down  in  his  heart  Samuel  Adams  grimly  smiled,  but  on  his 

cold,  pale  face  there  was  no  sign. 

The  British  held  Boston  secure,  and  in  the  splendid  mansion 

of  Hancock  lived  the  rebel,  Lord  Percy,  England's  pet.  The 

furniture,  plate  and  keeping  of  the  place  were  quite  to  his 

liking   &   Jt, 

Hancock's  ambitions  grew  as  the  days  went  by.  The  fight 

was  on.  His  property  was  in  the  hands  of  the  British,  and 

a  price  was  upon  his  head.  He,  too,  now  had  nothing  to 

lose.  If  England  could  be  whipped  he  would  get  his  property 

back,  and  the  honors  of  victory  would  be  his,  beside. 

Ambition  grew  apace;  he  studied  the  Manual  of  Arms  as 


JOHN      HANCOCK 129 

never  before,  and  made  himself  familiar  with  the  lives  of 

Caesar  and  Alexander.  At  Harvard,  he  had  read  the  Anabasis 

on  compulsion,  but  now  he  read  it  with  zest. 

The  Second  Congress  was  a  Congress  of  action;  the  first 

had  been  one  merely  of  conference.  A  presiding  officer  was 

required,  and  Samuel  Adams  quietly  pushed  his  man  to 

the  front.  He  let  it  be  known  that  Hancock  was  the  richest 

man  in  New  England,  perhaps  hi  America,  and  a  power 

in  every  emergency. 

John  Hancock  was  given  the  office  of  presiding  officer, 

the  place  of  honor. 

The  thought  never  occurred  to  him  that  the  man  on  the 

floor  is  the  man  who  acts,  and  the  individual  in  the  chair 

is  only  a  referee,  an  onlooker  of  the  contest.  When  a  man 

is  chosen  to  preside  he  is  safely  out  of  the  way,  and  no  one 

knew  this  better  than  that  clear-headed  man,  wise  as  a 

serpent,   Samuel  Adams. 

Hancock  was  intent  on  being  chosen  Commander  of  the 

Continental  Army.  The  war  was  hi  Massachusetts,  her 

principal  port  closed,  all  business  at  a  standstill.  Hancock 

was  a  soldier,  and  the  chief  citizen  of  Massachusetts — the 

command  should  go  to  him. 

Samuel  Adams  knew  this  could  never  be. 

To  hold  the  Southern  Colonies  and  give  the  cause  a  show 

of  reason  before  the  world,  an  aristocrat  with  something 

to  lose,  and  without  a  personal  grievance,  must  be  chosen, 

and  the  man  must  be  from  the  South.  To  get  Hancock  in 

a  position  where  his  mouth  would  be  stopped,  he  was  placed 

in  the  chair.  It  was  a  master  move. 


130 JOHN       HANCOCK 

Colonel  George  Washington  was  already  a  hero;  he  had 
fought  valiantly  for  England.  His  hands  were  clean ;  while 
Hancock  was  openly  called  a  smuggler.  Washington  was 
nominated  by  John  Adams.  The  motion  was  seconded  by 
Samuel  Adams.  Hancock  turned  first  red  and  then  deathly 
pale.  He  grasped  the  arms  of  his  chair  with  both  hands, 
and — put  the  question. 
It  was  unanimous. 

Hancock's  fame  seems  to  rest  on  the  fact  that  he  was  pre 
siding  officer  of  the  Congress  that  passed  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  and  therefore  its  first  signer,  and,  without 
consideration  for  cost  of  ink  and  paper,  wrote  his  name  in 
poster  letters.  When  you  look  upon  the  Declaration  the 
first  thing  you  see  is  the  signature  of  John  Hancock,  and 
you  recall  his  remark,  "I  guess  King  George  can  read  that 
without  spectacles."  The  whole  action  was  melodramatic, 
and  although  a  bold  signature  has  ever  been  said  to  betoken 
a  bold  heart,  it  has  yet  to  be  demonstrated  that  boys  who 
whistle  going  through  the  woods  are  indifferent  to  danger. 
"Conscious  weakness  takes  strong  attitudes,"  says  Delsarte. 
The  strength  of  Hancock's  signature  was  an  affectation 
quite  in  keeping  with  his  habit  of  riding  about  Boston  in 
a  coach-and-six,  with  outriders  in  uniform,  and  servants 
in  livery  ^t  Jt 

When  Hancock  wrote  to  Washington  asking  for  an  appoint 
ment  in  the  army,  the  wise  and  far-seeing  chief  replied 
with  gentle  words  of  praise  concerning  Colonel  Hancock's 
record,  and  wound  up  by  saying  that  he  regretted  there 
was  no  place  at  his  disposal  worthy  of  Colonel  Hancock's 


JOHN      HANCOCK 131 

qualifications.  Well  did  he  know  that  Hancock  was  not 
quite  patriot  enough  to  fill  a  lowly  rank. 
The  part  that  Hancock  played  in  the  eight  years  of  war 
was  inconspicuous.  However,  there  was  little  spirit  of 
revenge  in  his  character:  he  sometimes  scolded,  but 
he  did  not  hate.  He  never  allowed  personal  animosities 
to  make  him  waver  in  his  loyalty  to  independence  jt  In 
fact,  with  a  price  upon  his  head,  but  one  course  was  open 
for  him. 

Just  before  Washington  was  inaugurated  President,  he 
visited  Boston,  and  a  curious  struggle  took  place  between 
him  and  Hancock,  who  was  Governor.  It  was  all  a  question 
of  etiquette — which  should  make  the  first  call.  Each  side 
played  a  waiting  game,  and  at  last  Hancock's  gout  came  in 
as  an  excellent  excuse  and  the  country  was  saved. 
In  one  of  his  letters,  Hancock  says,  "The  entire  Genteel 
portion  of  the  town  was  invited  to  my  House,  while  on  the 
sidewalk  I  had  a  cask  of  Madeira  for  the  Common  People." 
His  repeated  re-election  as  Governor  proves  his  popularity. 
Through  lavish  expenditure,  his  fortune  was  much  reduced, 
and  for  many  years  he  was  sorely  pressed  for  funds,  his  means 
being  tied  up  in  unproductive  ways. 

His  last  triumph,  as  Governor,  was  to  send  a  special  message 
to  the  Legislature,  informing  that  body  that  "a  company 
of  Aliens  and  Foreigners  have  entered  the  State,  and  the 
Metropolis  of  Government,  and  under  advertisements  insult 
ing  to  all  Good  Men  and  Ladies  have  been  pleased  to  invite 
them  to  attend  certain  Stage-plays,  Interludes  and  Theatrical 
Entertainments  under  the  Style  and  Appellation  of  Moral 


i32 JOHN      HANCOCK 

Lectures.  .  .  .  All  of  which  must  be  put  a  stop  to  to 
once  and  the  Rogues  and  Varlots  punished." 
A  few  days  after  this, "the  Aliens  and  Foreigners"  gave  a 
presentation  of  Sheridan's  "School  for  Scandal."  In  the 
midst  of  the  performance  the  sheriff  and  a  posse  made  a 
rush  upon  the  stage  and  bagged  all  the  offenders. 
When  their  trial  came  on,  the  next  day,  the  "varlots  and 
vagroms"  had  secured  high  legal  talent  to  defend  them, 
one  of  which  counsel  was  Harrison  Gray  Otis.  The  actors 
were  discharged  on  the  slim  technicality  that  the  warrants 
of  arrest  had  not  been  properly  verified. 
However,  the  theater  was  closed,  but  the  "Common  People  " 
made  such  an  unseemly  howl  about  "rights"  and  all  that, 
that  the  Legislature  made  haste  to  repeal  the  law  which 
provided  that  play-actors  should  be  flogged. 
Hancock  defaulted  in  his  stewardship  as  Treasurer  of  Har 
vard  College,  and  only  escaped  arrest  for  embezzlement 
through  the  fact  that  he  was  Governor  of  the  State,  and  no 
process  could  be  served  upon  him.  After  his  death  his  estate 
paid  nine  years1  simple  interest  on  his  deficit,  and  ten  years 
thereafter  the  principal  was  paid. 

His  widow  married  Captain  Scott,  who  was  long  in  Hancock's 
employ  as  master  of  a  brig ;  and  we  find  the  worthy  captain 
proudly  exclaiming,  "I  have  embarked  on  the  sea  of  matri 
mony,  and  am  now  at  the  helm  of  the  Hancock  mansion !  " 
<|  No  biography  of  Governor  Hancock  has  ever  been  written. 
The  record  of  his  life  flutters  only  in  newspaper  paragraphs, 
letters,  and  chance  mention  in  various  diaries. 
Hancock  did  not  live  to  see  John  Adams  President.  Worn 


JOHN   HANCOCK 


133 


by  worry,  and  grown  old  before  his  time,  he  died  at  the  early 
age  of  fifty-six,  of  a  combination  of  gout  and  that  unplebeian 
complaint  we  now  term  Bright's  Disease. 
Thirty-three  years  after,  hale  old  John  Adams  down  at  Quincy 
spoke  of  him  as  "a  clever  fellow,  a  bit  spoiled  by  a  legacy, 
whom  I  used  to  know  in  my  younger  days."  He  left  no 
descendants,  and  his  heirs  were  too  intent  on  being  in  at 
the  death  to  care  for  his  memory.  They  neither  preserved 
the  data  of  his  life,  nor  over  his  grave  placed  a  headstone. 
The  monument  that  now  marks  his  resting-place  was  recently 
erected  by  the  State  of  Massachusetts.  He  was  buried  in  the 
Old  Granary  Burying-Ground,  on  Tremont  Street,  and  only 
a  step  from  his  grave  sleeps  his  friend  Samuel  Adams. 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS 


JOHN    QUINCY   ADAMS 


TO  the  guidance  of  the  legislative  councils;  to  the 
assistance  of  the  executive  and  subordinate  depart 
ments  ;  to  the  friendly  co-operation  of  the  respective  State 
Governments;  to  the  candid  and  liberal  support  of  the 
people,  so  far  as  it  may  be  deserved  by  honest  industry 
and  zeal,  I  shall  look  for  whatever  success  may  attend  my 
public  service;  and  knowing  that  "except  the  Lord  keep 
the  city,  the  watchman  waketh  in  vain,"  with  fervent 
supplications  for  His  favor,  to  His  overruling  providence  I 
commit,  with  humble  but  fearless  confidence,  my  own  fate 
and  the  future  destinies  of  my  country. 

— u  Inaugural  Address." 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS 


UNE  miles  South  of  Boston,  just  a  little 
back  from  the  escalloped  shores  of  Old 
Ocean,  lies  the  village  of  Braintree.  It  is  on 
the  Plymouth  post-road,  being  one  of  that 
string  of  settlements,  built  a  few  miles  apart 
for  better  protection,  that  lined  the  sea. 
Boston  being  crowded,  and  Plymouth  full  to 
overflowing,  the  home-seekers  spread  out 
North  and  South.  In  Sixteen  Hundred 
Twenty,  when  the  first  cabin  was  built  at 
Braintree,  land  that  was  not  in  sight  of  the 
coast  had  actually  no  value.  Back  a  mile, 
all  was  a  howling  wilderness,  with  trails 
made  by  wild  beasts  or  savage  men  as  wild. 
These  paths  led  through  tangles  of  fallen 
trees  and  tumbled  rocks,  beneath  dark,  over 
hanging  pines  where  Winter's  snows  melted 
not  till  Midsummer,  and  the  sun's  rays  were 
strange  and  alien.  Men  who  sought  to 
traverse  these  ways  had  to  crouch  and 
crawl  or  climb.  Through  them  no  horse  or 
ox  or  beast  of  burden  had  carried  its  load. 
<J  But  up  from  the  sea  the  ground  rose 
gradually  for  a  mile,  and  along  this  slope 
that  faced  the  tide,  wind  and  storm  had 
partly  cleared  the  ground,  and  on  the  hill 
sides  our  forefathers  made  their  homes. 
The  houses  were  built  facing  either  the 
East  or  the  South.  This  persistence  to  face 


i4o JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS 

either  the  sun  or  the  sea  shows  a  last,  strange  rudiment  of 
paganism,  making  queer  angles  now  that  surveyors  have 
come  with  Gunter's  chain  and  transit,  laying  out  streets 
and  doing  their  work. 

A  mile  out,  North  of  Braintree,  on  the  Boston  road,  came, 
in  Sixteen  Hundred  Twenty-five,  one  Captain  Wollaston, 
a  merry  wight,  and  thirty  boon  companions,  all  of  whom 
probably  left  England  for  England's  good.  They  were  in 
search  of  gold  and  pelf,  and  all  were  agreed  on  one  point : 
they  were  quite  too  good  to  do  any  hard  work.  Their  camp 
was  called  Mount  Wollaston,  or  the  Merry  Mount.  Our 
gallant  gentlemen  cultivated  the  friendship  of  the  Indians, 
in  the  hope  that  they  would  reveal  the  caves  and  caverns 
where  the  gold  grew  lush  and  nuggets  cumbered  the  way; 
and  the  Indians,  liking  the  drink  they  offered,  brought  them 
meal  and  corn  and  furs. 

And  so  the  thirty  set  up  a  Maypole,  adorned  with  bucks' 
horns,  and  drank  and  feasted,  and  danced  like  fairies  or 
furies,  the  livelong  day  or  night.  So  scandalously  did  these 
exiled  lords  behave  that  good  folks  made  a  wide  circuit 
'round  to  avoid  their  camp. 

Preaching  had  been  in  vain,  and  prayers  for  the  conversion 
of  the  wretches  remained  unanswered.  So  the  neighbors 
held  a  convention,  and  decided  to  send  Captain  Miles 
Standish  with  a  posse  to  teach  the  merry  men  manners. 
*I  Standish  appeared  among  the  bacchanalians  one  morning, 
perfectly  sober,  and  they  were  not.  He  arrested  the  captain, 
and  bade  the  others  begone.  The  leader  was  shipped  back 
to  England,  with  compliments  and  regrets,  and  the  thirty 


JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS 141 

scattered.  This  was  the  first  move  in  that  quarter  in  favor 
of  local  option. 

Six  years  later,  the  land  thereabouts  was  granted  and 
apportioned  out  to  the  Reverend  John  Wilson,  William 
Coddington,  Edward  Quinsey,  James  Penniman,  Moses 
Payne  and  Francis  Eliot. 

And  these  men  and  their  families  built  houses  and  founded 
"the  North  Precinct  of  the  Town  of  Braintree." 
Between  the  North  Precinct  and  the  South  Precinct  there 
was  continual  rivalry.  Boys  who  were  caught  over  the 
dead-line,  which  was  marked  by  Deacon  Penniman's  house, 
had  to  fight.  Thus  things  continued  until  Seventeen  Hundred 
Ninety-two,  when  one  John  Adams  was  Vice-President  of 
the  United  States.  Now  this  John  Adams,  lawyer,  was  the 
son  of  John  Adams,  honest  farmer  and  cordwainer,  who 
had  bought  the  Penniman  homestead,  and  whose  progenitor, 
Henry  Adams,  had  moved  there  in  Sixteen  Hundred  Thirty- 
six.  John  Adams,  Vice-President,  afterwards  President,  was 
born  there  in  the  Penniman  house,  and  was  regarded  as  a 
neutral,  although  he  had  been  thrashed  by  boys  both  from 
the  North  and  from  the  South  Precinct.  But  at  the  last,  there 
is  no  such  thing  as  neutrality.  John  Adams  sided  with  the 
boys  from  the  North  Precinct,  and  now  that  he  was  in  power 
it  occurred  to  him,  having  had  a  little  experience  in  the 
revolutionary  line,  that  for  the  North  Precinct  to  secede  from 
the  great  town  of  Braintree  would  be  but  proper  and  right. 
<J  The  North  Precinct  had  six  stores  that  sold  W.  I.  goods, 
and  a  tavern  that  sold  W.  E.  T.  goods,  and  it  should  have 
a  post-office  of  its  own. 


i42 JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS 

So  John  Adams  suggested  the  matter  to  Richard  Cranch, 
who  was  his  brother-in-law  and  near  neighbor.  Cranch 
agitated  the  matter,  and  the  new  town,  which  was  the  old, 
was  incorporated.  They  called  it  Quincy,  probably  because 
Abigail,  John's  wife,  insisted  upon  it.  She  had  named  her 
eldest  boy  Quincy,  in  honor  of  her  grandfather,  whose 
father's  name  was  Quinsey,  and  who  had  relatives  who 
spelled  it  De  Quincey,  one  of  which  tribe  was  an  opium- 
eater  «jt  jfc 

Now,  when  Abigail  made  a  suggestion,  John  usually  heeded 
it.  For  Abigail  was  as  wise  as  she  was  good,  and  John  well 
knew  that  his  success  in  life  had  come  largely  from  the  help, 
counsel  and  inspiration  vouchsafed  to  him  by  this  splendid 
woman.  And  the  man  who  will  not  let  a  woman  have  her 
way  in  all  such  small  matters  as  naming  of  babies  or  towns 
is  not  much  of  a  man. 

So  the  town  was  named  Quincy,  and  brother-in-law  Cranch 
was  appointed  its  first  postmaster.  Shortly  after,  the  Boston 
"Centinel"  contained  a  sarcastic  article  over  the  signature, 
"Old  Subscriber,"  concerning  the  distribution  of  official 
patronage  among  kinsmen,  and  the  Eliots  and  the  Everetts 
gossiped  over  back  fences. 

At  this  time  Abigail  lived  in  the  cottage  there  on  the  Ply 
mouth  road,  halfway  between  Braintree  and  Quincy,  but 
she  got  her  mail  at  Quincy. 

The  Adams  cottage  is  there  now,  and  the  next  time  you 
are  in  Boston  you  had  better  go  out  and  see  it,  just  as  June 
and  I  did  one  bright  October  day. 
June  has  lived  within  an  hour's  ride  of  the  Adams'  home 


JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS 143 

all  her  blessed  thirty-two  sunshiny  Summers ;  she  also 
boasts  a  Mayflower  ancestry,  with,  however,  a  slight  infusion 
of  Castle  Garden,  like  myself,  to  give  firmness  of  fiber — 
and  yet  she  had  never  been  to  Quincy. 
The  John  and  Abigail  cottage  was  built  in  Seventeen  Hundred 
Sixteen,  so  says  a  truthful  brick  found  in  the  quaint  old 
chimney.  Deacon  Penniman  built  this  house  for  his  son, 
and  it  faces  the  sea,  although  the  older  Penniman  house 
faces  the  South.  John  Adams  was  born  in  the  older  house ; 
but  when  he  used  to  go  to  Weymouth  every  Wednesday 
and  Saturday  evening  to  see  Abigail  Smith,  the  minister's 
daughter,  his  father,  the  worthy  shoemaker,  told  him  that 
when  he  got  married  he  could  have  the  other  house  for 
himself  jt  & 

John  was  a  bright  young  lawyer  then,  a  graduate  of  Harvard, 
where  he  had  been  sent  in  hopes  that  he  would  become  a 
minister,  for  one-half  the  students  then  at  Harvard  were 
embryo  preachers.  But  John  did  not  take  to  theology. 
He  had  witnessed  ecclesiastical  tennis  and  theological  pitch 
and  toss  in  Braintree  that  had  nearly  split  the  town,  and  he 
decided  on  the  law.  One  thing  sure,  he  could  not  work :  he 
was  not  strong  enough  for  that — everybody  said  so.  And 
right  here  seems  a  good  place  to  call  attention  to  the  fact 
that  weak  men,  like  those  who  are  threatened,  live  long. 
John  Adams'  letters  to  his  wife  reveal  a  very  frequent 
reference  to  liver  complaint,  lung  trouble,  and  that  tired 
feeling,  yet  he  lived  to  be  ninety-two. 
The  Reverend  Mr.  Smith  did  not  at  first  favor  the  idea  of 
his  daughter  Abigail  marrying  John  Adams.  The  Adams 


144 JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS 

family  were  only  farmers  (and  shoemakers  when  it  rained), 
while  the  Smiths  had  aristocracy  on  their  side  jfc  He  said 
lawyers  were  men  who  got  bad  folks  out  of  trouble  and 
good  folks  in.  But  Abigail  said  that  this  lawyer  was  different ; 
and  as  Mr.  Smith  saw  it  was  a  love-match,  and,  such  things 
being  difficult  to  combat  successfully,  he  decided  he  would 
do  the  next  best  thing — give  the  young  couple  his  blessing. 
Yet  the  neighbors  were  quite  scandalized  to  think  that  their 
pastor's  daughter  should  hold  converse  over  the  gate  with 
a  lawyer,  and  they  let  the  clergyman  know  it  as  neighbors 
then  did,  and  sometimes  do  now.  Then  did  the  Reverend 
Mr.  Smith  announce  that  he  would  preach  a  sermon  on 
the  sin  of  meddling  with  other  folk's  business.  As  his  text 
he  took  the  passage  from  Luke,  seventh  chapter,  thirty- 
third  verse:  "For  John  came  neither  eating  bread  nor 
drinking  wine;  and  ye  say,  he  hath  a  devil." 
The  neighbors  saw  the  point,  for  a  short  time  before,  when 
the  eldest  daughter,  Mary,  had  married  Richard  Cranch 
(the  man  who  was  to  achieve  a  post-office),  the  community 
had  entered  a  protest,  and  the  Reverend  Mr.  Smith  had 
preached  from  Luke,  tenth  chapter,  forty-second  verse: 
"And  Mary  hath  chosen  that  good  part  which  shall  not  be 
taken  away  from  her."  So  there,  now! 
And  John  and  Abigail  were  married  one  evening  at  early 
candlelight,  in  the  church  at  Weymouth.  The  good  father 
performed  the  ceremony,  and  nearly  broke  down  during 
it,  they  say,  and  then  he  kissed  both  bride  and  groom. 
The  neighbors  had  repaired  to  the  parsonage  and  were  eating 
and  drinking  and  making  merry  when  John  and  Abigail 


JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS 145 

slipped  out  by  the  back  gate,  and  made  their  way,  hand 
in  hand,  in  the  starlight,  down  the  road  that  ran  through 
the  woods  to  Braintree.  When  near  the  village  they  cut 
across  the  pasture-lot  and  reached  their  cottage,  which  for 
several  weeks  they  had  been  putting  in  order.  John  unlocked 
the  front  door,  and  they  entered  over  the  big,  fiat  stone  at 
the  entry,  and  over  which  you  may  enter  now,  all  sunken 
and  worn  by  generations  of  men  gone.  Some  whose  feet 
have  pressed  that  doorstep  we  count  as  the  salt  of  the  earth, 
for  their  names  are  written  large  on  history's  page.  Washing 
ton  rode  out  there  on  horseback,  and  while  his  aide  held 
his  horse,  he  visited  and  drank  mulled  cider  and  ate  dough 
nuts  within.  Hancock  came  often,  and  Otis,  Samuel  Adams 
and  Loring  used  to  enter  without  plying  the  knocker. 
Through  the  earnest  work  of  William  G.  Spear,  the  cottage 
has  now  been  restored  and  fully  furnished,  as  near  like 
it  was  then  as  knowledge,  fancy  and  imagination  can 
devise  Jt,  jt 

When  we  reached   Quincy  we  saw  a  benevolent-looking 
old  Puritan,  and  June  said,  "Ask  him!" 
"Can  you  tell  me  where  we  can  find  Mr.  Spear,  the  anti 
quarian?  "  I  inquired. 

"The  which?  "  said  the  son  of  Priscilla  Mullins. 
"Mr.  Spear,  the  antiquarian,"  I  repeated. 
"It's  not  Bill  Spear  who  keeps  a  secondhand-shop,  you 
want,  mebbe?  " 

"Yes;  I  think  that  is  the  man." 

And  so  we  were  directed  to  the  "secondhand-shop,"  which 
proved  to  be  the  rooms  of  the  Quincy  Historical  Society. 


146 JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS 

And  there  we  saw  such  a  collection  of  secondhand  stuff 
that,  as  we  looked  and  looked,  and  Mr.  Spear  explained, 
and  gave  large  slices  of  Colonial  history,  June,  who  is  a 
Daughter  of  the  American  Revolution,  gushed  a  trifle  more 
than  was  meet. 

Nothing  short  of  a  hundred  years  will  set  the  seal  of  value 
on  an  article  for  Mr.  Spear,  and  one  hundred  fifty  is  more 
like  it.  On  his  walls  are  hats,  caps,  spurs,  boots  and  accouter- 
ments  used  in  the  Revolutionary  War.  Then  there  are 
candlesticks,  snuffers,  spectacles,  butter-molds,  bonnets, 
dresses,  shoes,  baby-stockings,  cradles,  rattles,  aprons, 
butter-tubs  made  out  of  a  solid  piece,  shovels  to  match, 
andirons,  pokers,  skillets  and  blue  china  galore. 
"Bill  Spear  "  himself  is  quite  a  curiosity.  He  traces  a  lineage 
to  the  well-known  Lieutenant  Seth  Spear,  of  Revolutionary 
fame,  and  back  of  that  to  John  Alden  who  spoke  for  himself. 
The  bark  on  the  antiquarian  is  rather  rough ;  and  I  regret 
to  say  that  he  makes  use  of  a  few  words  I  can  not  find  in 
the  "Century  Dictionary,"  but  as  June  was  not  shocked 
I  managed  to  stand  it.  On  further  acquaintance  I  concluded 
that  Mr.  Spear's  bruskness  was  assumed,  and  that  beneath 
the  tough  husk  there  beats  a  very  tender  heart.  He  is  one 
of  those  queer  fellows  who  do  good  by  stealth  and  abuse 
you  roundly  if  accused  of  it. 

For  twenty-five  years  Mr.  Spear  has  been  doing  little  else 
but  studying  Colonial  history,  and  making  love  to  old  ladies 
who  own  clocks  and  skillets  given  them  by  their  great- 
grandmammas.  There  is  no  doubt  that  Spear  has  dictated 
clauses  in  a  hundred  wills  devising  that  William  6.  Spear, 


JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS 147 

Custodian   of   the   Quincy   Historical  Society,   shall  have 
snuffers  and  biscuit-molds. 

At  first,  Mr.  Spear  collected  for  his  own  amusement  and 
benefit,  but  the  trouble  grew  upon  him  until  it  became 
chronic,  and  one  fine  day  he  realized  that  he  was  not  immor 
tal  and  when  he  should  die,  all  his  collection,  which  had 
taken  years  to  accumulate,  would  be  scattered.  And  so  he 
founded  the  Quincy  Historical  Society,  incorporated  by  a 
perpetual  charter,  with  Charles  Francis  Adams,  grandson 
of  John  Quincy  Adams,  as  first  president. 
Then,  the  next  thing  was  to  secure  the  cottage  where  John 
and  Abigail  Adams  began  housekeeping,  and  where  John 
Quincy  was  born.  This  house  has  been  in  the  Adams  family 
all  these  years  and  been  rented  to  the  firm  of  Tom,  Dick 
and  Harry,  and  any  of  their  tribe  who  would  agree  to  pay 
ten  dollars  a  month  for  its  use  and  abuse.  Just  across  the 
road  from  the  cottage  lives  a  fine  old  soul  by  the  name  of 
John  Crane.  Mr.  Crane  is  somewhere  between  seventy 
and  a  hundred  years  old,  but  he  has  a  young  heart,  a  face 
like  Gladstone  and  a  memory  like  a  copy-book.  Mr.  Crane 
was  on  very  good  terms  with  John  Quincy  Adams,  knew 
him  well  and  had  often  seen  him  come  here  to  collect  rent. 
He  told  me  that  during  his  recollection  the  Adams  place 
had  been  occupied  by  full  forty  families.  But  now,  thanks 
to  "Bill  Spear,"  it  is  no  longer  for  rent.  <HThe  house  has  been 
raised  from  the  ground,  new  sills  placed  under  it,  and  while 
every  part — scantling,  rafter,  joist,  crossbeam,  lath  and 
weatherboard— of  the  original  house  has  been  retained,  it  has 
been  put  in  such  order  that  it  is  no  longer  going  to  ruin. 


148 JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS 

CJ  From  the  ample  stores  of  his  various  antiquarian  deposi 
tories  Mr.  Spear  has  refurnished  it ;  and  with  a  ripe  knowledge 
and  rare  good  taste  and  restraining  imagination,  the  cot 
tage  is  now  shown  to  us  as  a  Colonial  farmhouse  of  the  year 
Seventeen  Hundred  Fifty.  The  wonder  to  me  is  that  Mr.  Spear, 
being  human,  did  not  move  his  "secondhand-shop  "down  here 
and  make  of  the  place  a  curiosity-shop.  But  he  has  done  better. 
CJ  As  you  step  across  the  doorsill  and  pass  from  the  little  entry 
into  the  "living-room,"  you  pause  and  murmur,  "Excuse 
me."  For  there  is  a  fire  on  the  hearth,  the  teapot  sings  softly, 
and  on  the  back  of  a  chair  hangs  a  sunbonnet.  And  over 
there  on  the  table  is  an  open  Bible,  and  on  the  open  page 
is  a  pair  of  spectacles  and  a  red,  crumpled  handkerchief. 
Yes,  the  folks  are  at  home :  they  have  just  stepped  into  the 
next  room — perhaps  are  eating  dinner.  And  so  you  sit  down 
in  an  old  hickory  chair,  or  in  the  high  settle  that  stands 
against  the  wall  by  the  fireplace,  and  wait,  expecting  every 
moment  that  the  kitchen-door  will  creak  on  its  wooden 
hinges,  and  Abigail,  smiling  and  gentle,  will  enter  to  greet 
you.  Mr.  Spear  understands,  and,  disappearing,  leaves  you 
to  your  thoughts — and  June's. 

John  and  Abigail  were  lovers  their  lifetime  through.  Their 
published  letters  show  a  oneness  of  thought  and  sentiment 
that,  viewed  across  the  years,  moves  us  to  tears  to  think 
that  such  as  they  should  at  last  feebly  totter,  and  then  turn 
to  dust.  But  here  they  came  in  the  joyous  Springtime  of 
their  lives;  upon  this  floor  you  tread  the  ways  their  feet 
have  trod ;  these  walls  have  echoed  to  their  singing  voices, 
listened  to  their  counsels,  and  seen  love's  caress. 


JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS 149 

There  is  no  surplus  furniture  nor  display  nor  setting  forth 
of  useless  things.  Every  article  you  see  has  its  use.  The  little 
shelf  of  books,  well-thumbed,  displays  no  "Trilby"  nor 
"Quest  of  the  Golden  Girl " — not  an  anachronism  anywhere. 
Curtains,  chairs,  tables,  and  the  one  or  two  pictures — all 
ring  true.  In  the  kitchen  are  washtubs  and  butter-ladles 
and  bowls ;  and  the  lantern  hanging  by  the  chimney,  with  a 
dipped  candle  inside,  has  a  carefully  scraped  horn  face. 
It  is  a  lanthorn.  In  the  cupboard  across  the  corner  are 
blue  china  and  pewter  spoons  and  steel  knives,  with  just  a 
little  polished-brass  stuff  sent  from  England.  Down  in  the 
cellar,  with  its  dirt  walls,  are  apples,  yellow  pumpkins  and 
potatoes— each  in  its  proper  place,  for  Abigail  was  a  rare 
good  housekeeper.  Then  there  is  a  barrel  of  cider,  with  a 
hickory  spigot  and  an  inviting  gourd.  All  tells  of  economy, 
thrift,  industry  and  the  cunning  of  woman's  hands. 
In  the  kitchen  is  a  funny  cradle,  hooded,  and  cut  out  of  a 
great  pine  log.  The  little  mattress  and  the  coverlet  seem 
disturbed,  and  you  would  declare  the  baby  had  just  been 
lifted  out,  and  you  listen  for  its  cry.  The  rocker  is  worn  by 
the  feet  of  mothers  whose  hands  were  busy  with  needles 
or  wheel  as  they  rocked  and  sang.  And  from  the  fact  that 
it  is  in  the  kitchen,  you  know  that  the  servant-girl  problem 
then  had  no  terrors. 

Overhead  hang  ears  of  com,  bunches  of  dried  catnip,  penny 
royal  and  boneset,  and  festooned  across  the  corner  are 
strings  of  dried  apples. 

Then  you  go  upstairs,  with  conscience  pricking  a  bit  for 
thus  visiting  the  house  of  honest  folks  when  they  are  away, 


iso JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS 

for  you  know  how  all  good  housewives  dislike  to  have  people 
prying  about,  especially  in  the  upper  chambers— at  least 
June  said  so! 

The  room  to  the  right  was  Abigail's  own.  You  would  know 
it  was  a  woman's  room.  There  is  a  faint  odor  of  lavender 
and  thyme  about  it,  and  the  white  and  blue  draperies  around 
the  little  mirror,  and  the  little  feminine  nothings  on  the 
dresser,  reveal  the  lady  who  would  appear  well  before  the 
man  she  loves.  <f  The  bed  is  a  high,  draped  four-poster,  plain 
and  solid,  evidently  made  by  a  ship-carpenter  who  had  ambi 
tions.  The  coverlet  is  light  blue,  and  matches  the  draperies  of 
windows,  dresser  and  mirror.  On  the  pillow  is  a  nightcap, 
in  which  even  a  homely  woman  would  be  beautiful.  There 
is  a  clothespress  in  the  corner,  into  which  Mr.  Spear  says 
we  may  look.  On  the  door  is  a  slippery-elm  button,  and  within, 
hanging  on  wooden  pegs,  are  dainty  dresses ;  stiff,  curiously 
embroidered  gowns  they  are,  that  came  from  across  the  sea, 
sent,  perhaps,  by  John  Adams  when  he  went  to  France,  and 
left  Abigail  here  to  farm  and  sew  and  weave  and  teach  the 
children  jfc  jfc 

June  examined  the  dresses  carefully,  and  said  the  embroidery 
was  handmade,  and  must  have  taken  months  and  months 
to  complete.  On  a  high  shelf  of  the  closet  are  bandboxes, 
in  which  are  bonnets,  astonishing  bonnets,  with  prodigious 
flaring  fronts.  Mr.  Spear  insisted  that  June  should  try  one 
on,  and  when  she  did  we  stood  off  and  declared  the  effect 
was  a  vision  of  loveliness.  Outside  the  clothespress,  on  a 
peg,  hangs  a  linsey-woolsey,  every-day  gown  that  shows 
marks  of  wear.  The  waist  came  just  under  June's  arms, 


JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS 151 

and  the  bottom  of  the  dress  to  her  shoe-tops.  We  asked 
Mr.  Spear  the  price  of  it,  but  the  custodian  is  not  commer 
cial.  In  a  corner  of  the  room  is  a  cedar  chest  containing 
hand-woven  linen. 

By  the  front  window  is  a  little,  low  desk,  with  a  leaf  that 
opens  out  for  a  writing-shelf.  And  here  you  see  quill-pens, 
fresh  nibbed,  and  ink  in  a  curious  well  made  from  horn. 
Here  it  was  that  Abigail  wrote  those  letters  to  her  lover- 
husband  when  he  attended  those  first  and  second  Congresses 
in  Philadelphia ;  and  then  when  he  was  in  France  and  Eng 
land,  those  letters  in  which  we  see  affection,  loyalty,  tales 
of  babies  with  colic,  brave,  political  good  sense,  and  all  those 
foolish  trifles  that  go  to  fill  up  love-letters,  and,  at  the  last, 
are  their  divine  essence  and  charm. 
Here,  she  wrote  the  letter  telling  of  going  with  their  seven- 
year-old  boy,  John  Quincy,  to  Penn's  Hill  to  watch  the  burn 
ing  of  Charlestown;  and  saw  the  flashing  of  camions  and 
rising  smoke  that  marked  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill.  Here 
she  wrote  to  her  husband  when  he  was  minister  to  England, 
"This  little  cottage  has  more  comfort  and  satisfaction  for 
you  than  the  courts  of  royalty." 

But  of  all  the  letters  written  by  that  brave  woman  none 
reveals  her  true  nobility  better  than  the  one  written  to  her 
husband  the  day  he  became  President  of  the  United  States. 

Here  it  is  entire: 

Quincy,  8  February,  1797. 

"The  sun  is  dressed  in  brightest  beams, 
To  give  thy  honors  to  the  day." 

"And  may  it  prove  an  auspicious  prelude  to  each  ensuing 


i52 JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS 

season.  You  have  this  day  to  declare  yourself  head  of  a 
Nation.  And  now,  0  Lord,  my  God,  Thou  hast  made  Thy 
servant  ruler  over  the  people.  Give  unto  him  an  understand 
ing  heart,  that  he  may  know  how  to  go  out  and  come  in 
before  this  great  people ;  that  he  may  discern  between  good 
and  bad.  For  who  is  able  to  judge  this  Thy  so  great  a  people, 
were  the  words  of  a  royal  Sovereign ;  and  not  less  applicable 
to  him  who  is  invested  with  the  Chief  Magistracy  of  a  nation, 
though  he  wear  not  a  crown,  nor  the  robes  of  royalty. 
"My  thoughts  and  my  meditations  are  with  you,  though 
personally  absent ;  and  my  petitions  to  Heaven  are  that  the 
things  which  make  for  peace  may  not  be  hidden  from  your 
eyes.  My  feelings  are  not  those  of  pride  or  ostentation  upon 
the  occasion.  They  are  solemnized  by  a  sense  of  the  obli 
gations,  the  important  trusts,  and  numerous  duties  connected 
with  it.  That  you  may  be  enabled  to  discharge  them  with 
honor  to  yourself,  with  justice  and  impartiality  to  your 
country,  and  with  satisfaction  to  this  great  people,  shall 
be  the  daily  prayer  of  your 

A.  A." 

It  was  in  this  room  that  Abigail  waited  while  British  soldiers 
ransacked  the  rooms  below  and  made  bullets  of  the  best 
pewter  spoons.  Here  her  son  who  was  to  be  President  was 
born  Jt  Jt, 

John  Quincy  Adams  was  six  years  old  when  his  father 
kissed  him  good-by  and  rode  away  for  Philadelphia  with 
John  Hancock  and  Samuel  Adams  (who  rode  a  horse  loaned 
him  by  John  Adams).  Abigail  stood  in  the  doorway  holding 


JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS 153 

the  baby,  and  watched  them  disappear  in  the  curve  of  the 
road.  This  was  in  August,  Seventeen  Hundred  Seventy-four. 
Most  of  the  rest  of  that  year  Abigail  was  alone  with  her 
babies  on  the  little  farm.  It  was  the  same  next  year,  and  in 
Seventeen  Hundred  Seventy-six,  too,  when  John  Adams 
wrote  home  that  he  had  made  the  formal  move  for  Inde 
pendency  and  also  nominated  George  Washington  as 
Commander-in-Chief  of  the  army;  and  he  hoped  things 
would  soon  be  better. 

Those  were  troublous  times  in  which  to  live  in  the  vicinity 
of  Boston.  There  were  straggling  troops  passing  up  and 
down  the  Plymouth  road  every  day.  Sometimes  they  were 
redcoats  and  sometimes  buff  and  blue,  but  all  seemed  to 
be  very  hungry  and  extremely  thirsty,  and  the  Adams 
household  received  a  deal  more  attention  than  it  courted. 
The  master  of  the  house  was  away,  but  all  seemed  to  know 
who  lived  there,  and  the  callers  were  not  always  courteous. 
CJ  In  such  a  feverish  atmosphere  of  unrest,  children  evolve 
quickly  into  men  and  women,  and  their  faces  take  on  the 
look  of  thought  where  should  be  only  careless,  happy, 
dimpled  smiles.  Yes,  responsibility  matures,  and  that  is 
the  way  John  Quincy  Adams  got  cheated  out  of  his  childhood. 
<|  When  eight  years  of  age,  his  mother  called  him  the  little 
man  of  the  house.  The  next  year  he  was  a  post-rider,  making 
a  daily  trip  to  Boston  with  letter-bags  across  his  saddlebows. 
<f  When  eleven  years  of  age,  his  father  came  home  to  say 
that  some  one  had  to  go  to  France  to  serve  with  Jay  and 
Franklin  in  making  a  treaty. 
"Go,"  said  Abigail,  "and  God  be  with  you!  "  But  when  it 


i54 JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS 

was  suggested  that  John  Quincy  go  too,  the  parting  did  not 
seem  so  easy.  But  it  was  a  fine  opportunity  for  the  boy  to 
see  the  world  of  men,  and  the  mother's  head  appreciated 
it  even  if  her  heart  did  not.  And  yet  she  had  the  heroism 
that  is  willing  to  remain  behind. 

So  father  and  son  sailed  away ;  and  little  John  Quincy  added 
postscripts  to  his  father's  letters  and  said,  "I  send  my  loving 
duty  to  my  mamma." 

The  boy  took  kindly  to  foreign  ways,  as  boys  will,  and  the 
French  language  had  no  such  terrors  for  him  as  it  had  for 
his  father.  The  first  stay  in  Europe  was  only  three  months, 
and  back  they  came  on  a  leaky  ship. 
But  the  home-stay  was  even  shorter  than  the  stay  abroad, 
and  John  Adams  had  again  to  cross  the  water  on  his  country's 
business.  Again  the  boy  went  with  him. 
It  was  five  years  before  the  mother  saw  him.  And  then  he 
had  gone  on  alone  from  Paris  to  London  to  meet  her.  She 
did  not  know  him,  for  he  was  nearly  eighteen  and  a  man 
grown.  He  had  visited  every  country  in  Europe  and  been  the 
helper  and  companion  of  statesmen  and  courtiers,  and  seen 
society  in  its  various  phases.  He  spoke  several  languages, 
and  in  point  of  polish  and  manly  dignity  was  the  peer  of 
many  of  his  elders.  Mrs.  Adams  looked  at  him  and  then 
began  to  cry,  whether  for  joy  or  for  sorrow  she  did  not  know. 
Her  boy  had  gone,  escaped  her,  gone  forever,  but,  instead, 
here  was  a  tall  young  diplomat  calling  her  "mother." 
There  was  a  career  ahead  for  John  Quincy  Adams — his 
father  knew  it,  his  mother  was  sure  of  it,  and  John  Quincy 
himself  was  not  in  doubt.  He  could  then  have  gone  right 


JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS 155 

on,  but  his  father  was  a  Harvard  man,  and  the  New  England 
superstition  was  strong  in  the  Adams  heart  that  success 
could  only  be  achieved  when  based  on  a  Harvard  parchment. 
<f  So  back  to  Massachusetts  sailed  John  Quincy ;  and  a 
two-year  course  at  Harvard  secured  the  much-desired 
diploma  Jt>  j* 

From  the  very  time  he  crawled  over  this  kitchen-floor 
and  pushed  a  chair,  learning  to  walk,  or  tumbled  down  the 
stairs  and  then  made  his  way  bravely  up  again  alone,  he  knew 
that  he  would  arrive.  Precocious,  proud,  firm,  and  with  a 
coldness  in  his  nature  that  was  not  a  heritage  from  either 
his  father  or  his  mother,  he  made  his  way. 
It  was  a  zigzag  course,  and  the  way  was  strewn  with  the 
flotsam  and  jetsam  of  wrecked  parties  and  blighted  hopes, 
but  out  of  the  wreckage  John  Quincy  Adams  always  appeared 
calm,  poised  and  serene.  When  he  opposed  the  purchase  of 
Louisiana  it  looks  as  if  he  allowed  his  animosity  for  Jefferson 
to  put  his  judgment  in  chancery.  He  made  mistakes,  but 
this  was  the  only  blunder  of  his  career.  The  record  of  that 
life  expressed  in  bold  stands  thus: 

1767 — Born  May  Eleventh. 

1776— Post-rider  between  Boston  and  Quincy. 

!  1778 — At  school  in  Paris. 

1780— At  school  in  Leyden. 

1781 — Private  Secretary  to  Minister  to  Russia. 

1787 — Graduated  at  Harvard. 

1794 — Minister  at  The  Hague. 

1797 — Married  Louise  Catherine  Johnson,  of  Maryland. 

1797 — Minister  at  Berlin. 


i56 JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS 

1802 — Member  of  Massachusetts  State  Senate. 

1803 — United  States  Senator. 

1806 — Professor  of  Rhetoric  and  Oratory  at  Harvard. 

1809 — Minister  to  Russia. 

1811 — Nominated  and  confirmed  by  Senate  as  Judge 

of  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States ;  declined. 
1814 — Commissioner  at  Ghent  to  treat  for  peace  with 

Great  Britain. 

1815 — Minister  to  Great  Britain. 
1817 — Secretary  of  State. 
1825 — Elected  President  of  the  United  States. 
1830 — Elected  a  Member  of  Congress,  and  represented 

the  district  for  seventeen  years. 
1848 — Stricken  with  paralysis  February  Twenty-first  in 

the  Capitol,  and  died  the  second  day  after. 

#         #         #         #         #         *         #         #'#         * 

"Are  n't  we  staying  in  this  room  a  good  while?  "  said  June ; 
"you  have  sat  there  staring  out  of  that  window  looking  at 
nothing  for  just  ten  minutes,  and  not  a  word  have  you 
spoken !  " 

Mr.  Spear  had  disappeared  into  space,  and  so  we  made  our 
way  across  the  little  hall  to  the  room  that  belonged  to  Mr. 
Adams.  It  was  in  the  disorder  that  men's  rooms  are  apt 
to  be.  On  the  table  were  quill-pens  and  curious  old  papers 
with  seals  on  them,  and  on  one  I  saw  the  date,  June  Six 
teenth,  Seventeen  Hundred  Sixty-eight — the  whole  docu 
ment  written  out  in  the  hand  of  John  Adams,  beginning 
very  prim  and  careful,  then  moving  off  into  a  hurried  scrawl 
as  spirit  mastered  the  letter.  There  is  a  little  hair-covered 


JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS 157 

trunk  in  the  corner,  studded  with  brass  nails,  and  boots 
and  leggings  and  canes  and  a  jackknife  and  a  bootjack,  and, 
on  the  window-sill,  a  friendly  snuffbox.  In  the  clothespress 
were  buff  trousers  and  an  embroidered  coat  and  shoes  with 
silver  buckles,  and  several  suits  of  every-day  clothes,  showing 
wear  and  patches. 

On  up  to  the  garret  we  groped,  and  bumped  our  heads 
against  the  rafters.  The  light  was  dim,  but  we  could  make 
out  more  apples  on  strings,  and  roots  and  herbs  in  bunches 
hung  from  the  peak.  Here  was  a  three-legged  chair  and  a 
broken  spinning-wheel,  and  the  junk  that  is  too  valuable 
to  throw  away,  yet  not  good  enough  to  keep,  but  "some 
day  may  be  needed." 

Down  the  narrow  stairway  we  went,  and  in  the  little  kitchen, 
Sammy,  the  artist,  and  Mr.  Spear,  the  custodian,  were  busy 
at  the  fireplace  preparing  dinner.  There  is  no  stove  in  the 
house,  and  none  is  needed.  The  crane  and  brick  oven  and 
long-handled  skillets  suffice.  Sammy  is  an  expert  camp-cook, 
and  swears  there  is  death  in  the  chafing-dish,  and  grows 
profane  if  you  mention  one.  His  skill  in  turning  flapjacks 
by  a  simple  manipulation  of  the  long-handled  griddle  means 
more  to  his  true  ego  than  the  finest  canvas. 
June  offered  to  set  the  table,  but  Sammy  said  she  could 
never  do  it  alone,  so  together  they  brought  out  the  blue 
china  dishes  and  the  pewter  plates.  Then  they  drew  water 
at  the  stone-curbed  well  with  the  great  sweep,  carrying  the 
leather-baled  bucket  between  them. 
I  was  feeling  quite  useless  and  asked,  "Can't  I  do  something 
to  help?  " 


i58 JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS 

"There  is  the  lye-leach! — you  might  bring  out  some  ashes 

and  make  some  soft-soap,"  said  June  pointing  to  the  ancient 

leach  and  soap-kettle  in  the  yard,  the  joys  of  Mr.  Spear's 

heart  &  & 

Sammy  stood  at  the  back  door  and  pounded  on  the  dishpan 

with  a  wooden  spoon  to  announce  that  dinner  was  ready. 

It  was  quite  a  sumptuous  meal :  potatoes  baked  in  the  ashes, 

beans  baked  in  the  brick  oven,  coffee  made  on  the  hearth, 

fish  cooked  in  the  skillet  and  pancakes  made  on  a  griddle 

with  a  handle  three  feet  long. 

Mr.  Spear  had  aspirations  toward  an  apple-pie  and  had 

made  violent  efforts  in  that  direction,  but  the  product  being 

dough  on  top  and  charcoal  on  the  bottom  we  declined  the 

nomination  with  thanks. 

June  suggested  that  pies  should  be  baked  in  an  oven  and 

not  cooked  on  a  pancake  griddle.  The  custodian  thought 

there  might  be  something  in  it — a  suggestion  he  would  have 

scorned  and  scouted  had  it  come  from  me. 

To  change  the  rather  painful  subject,  Mr.  Spear  began  to 

talk  about  John  and  Abigail  Adams,  and  to  quote  from 

their  "Letters,"  a  volume  he  seems  to  have  by  heart. 

"Do  you  know  why  their  love  was  so  very  steadfast,  and 

why  they  stimulated  the  mental  and  spiritual  natures  of 

each  other  so?  "  asked  June. 

"No,  why  was  it?  " 

"Well,  I  '11  tell  you:  it  was  because  they  spent  one-third  of 

their  married  life  apart." 

"Indeed!" 

"Yes,  and  in  this  way  they  lived  in  an  ideal  world.  In  all 


JOHN     QUINCY    ADAMS 


159 


their  letters  you  see  they  are  always  counting  the  days  ere 
they  will  meet.  Now,  people  who  are  together  all  the  time 
never  write  that  way  because  they  do  not  feel  that  way — 
I  '11  leave  it  to  Mr.  Spear !  " 

But  Mr.  Spear,  being  a  bachelor,  did  not  know.  Then  the 
case  was  referred  to  Sammy,  and  Sammy  lied  and  said  he 
had  never  considered  the  subject. 

"And  would  you  advise,  then,  that  married  couples  live 
apart  one-third  of  the  time,  in  the  interests  of  domestic 
peace?  "  I  asked. 

"Certainly!"  said  June,  with  her  Burne- Jones  chin  in 
the  air.  "Certainly;  but  I  fear  you  are  the  man  who  does 
not  understand;  and  anyway  I  am  sure  it  will  be  much 
more  profitable  for  us  to  cultivate  the  receptive  spirit  and 
listen  to  Mr.  Spear — such  opportunities  do  not  come  very 
often.  I  did  not  mean  to  interrupt  you,  Mr.  Spear;  go  on 
please !  "  <I  And  Mr.  Spear  filled  a  clay  pipe  with  natural 
leaf  that  he  crumbled  in  his  hand,  and,  deftly  picking  a 
coal  from  the  fireplace  with  a  shovel  one  hundred  fifty 
years  old,  puffed  five  times  silently,  and  began  to  talk. 


SO  HERE  ENDETH  BOOK  ONE  OF  AMERICAN  STATESMEN,  THE 
SAME  BEING  ONE  OF  THE  SERIES  OF  LITTLE  JOURNEYS, 
AS  WRITTEN  BY  ELBERT  HUBBARD:  THE  BORDERS  AND 
INITIALS  BEING  DESIGNED  BY  ROYCROFT  ARTISTS,  AND 
THE  WHOLE  DONE  INTO  A  PRINTED  VOLUME  BY  THE 
ROYCROFTERS,  AT  THEIR  SHOP,  WHICH  IS  IN  EAST 
AURORA,  ERIE  COUNTY,  NEW  YORK,  IN  THE  YEAR  MCMXI 


-I 


3  1205  00894  8166 


AA    000853967 


